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TWO   LETTERS 


THE   EARL   OF  A  B  H-OJXN ,, 


STATE  PROSECUTIONS 


B 


THE  NEAPOLITAN  GOYERMENT. 


BY  THE  RIGHT  HON.  W.  E.JGUDSTONE, 


M.  P.  FOR  THE  UNIVERSITY  OF  OXFORD. 


El 


FIRST  AMERICAN,  FR03I  THE  FIFTH  lOXDOX  EDITIOX. 


NEW- YORK: 
PUBLISHED  BY  JOHN  S.  NICHOLS,  NEWSBOY. 

ORDERS  RP^CEIVED  AT  207  TEARL-STREET. 
SOLD  BY  THE  BOOKSELLERS  GEXERALLY. 


1851. 


.rimdTnll 


TWO   LETTEES 


TO 


THE    EARL    OF   AJERBEENj 


ON   THE 


STATE  PKOSECUTIONS 


THE  NEAPOLITAN  GOVERNMENT, 


BY  THE  EIGHT  HON.  ¥.  E.  GLADSTONE, 

M.  P.  FOB  THE  UNIVERSITY  OF  OXFORD. 


PIRST  AMERICAN,  FROM  THE  FIFTH  LONPON  EDITION. 


NEW-YORK  : 
PUBLISHED  BY  JOHN  S.  NICHOLS,  NEWSBOY. 

ORDERS  RECEIVED  AT  207  PEARL-STREET. 
SOLD  BY  THE  BOOKSELLERS  GENERALLY. 

1851. 


HEHRY  MORSE  STKFHCNS 


JOHN  R.  M'GOWN,  PRINTER, 
57,  Ann-street. 


ADVERTISEMENT 


TO  THE  FIRST  EDITION  OF  THE  FIRST  LETTER. 


I  PROPOSE  to  publish  forthwith  a  Second  Letter,  in  further  elu- 
cidation of  the  subject,  and  in  explanation  of  the  long  delay  which 
has  occurred  since  the  following  pages  were  addressed  to  Lord 
Aberdeen. 

w.  E.  a. 

6,  Carlton  Gardens,  Wth  July,  1851. 


864829 


LETTER   I 

&c.,  &c.   ,  „ 


6,  Carlton  Gardens,  April  7,  1851. 

My  Dear  Lord  Aberdeen, 

I  must  begin  a  letter,  which  I  fear  you  will  find  painful, 
nay,  revolting,  to  the  last  degree,  with  offering  you  my  cordial 
thanks  for  the  permission  to  address  it  to  you. 

After  a  residence  of  between  three  and  four  months  at  Naples, 
I  have  come  home  with  a  deep  sense  of  the  duty  incumbent  upon 
me  to  make  some  attempt  towards  mitigating  the  horrors,  I  can 
use  no  weaker  wor«i>  amidst  which  the  G^overnment  of  that  country 
is  now  carried  on. 

As  I  shall  have  to  detail  startling  facts,  and  as  I  cannot  avoid 
in  describing  them  the  use  of  the  strongest  language,  I  must  state 
at  the  outset,  that  it  was  not  for  the  purposes  of  political  criticism 
or  censorship  that  I  went  to  Naples.  Circumstances  purely  do- 
mestic took  me  and  kept  me  there.  I  did  not  carry  with  me  the 
idea,  that  it  was  any  part  of  my  duty  to  look  for  grievances  in  the 
administration  of  the  Government,  or  to  propagate  ideas  belonging 
to  another  meridian.  I  admit,  in  the  most  unqualified  manner, 
the  respect  that  is  due  from  Englishmen,  as  from  others,  to 
Governments  in  general,  whether  they  be  absolute,  constitutional, 
or  republican,  as  the  representatives  of  a  public,  nay,  of  a  Divine 
authority,  and  as  the  guardians  of  order.  I  do  not  know  that  there 
is  any  other  country  in  Europe,  I  am  sure  there  is  none  unless  it 
is  in  the  south  of  Italy,  from  which  I  should  have  returned  with 
anything  like  the  ideas  and  intentions  which  now  press  upon  my 
mind.  On  this,  among  other  grounds,  I  am  grateful  for  your 
consent  to  be  the  recipient  of  my  statement,  because  it  will  give 
weight  to  my  asseveration,  that  this  grievous  subject  has  forced 
itself  upon  me,  that  I  am  sincere  in  disclaiming  what  is  called 
political  propagandism,  that  I  have  not  gathered  wholesale  and 


6  STATE  PROSECUTIONS  OF 

without  examination  the  statements  I  am  about  to  make,  that 
an  important  part  of  them  are  within  my  own  personal  knowledge, 
and  that  as  to  the  rest  of  those  which  are  stated  without  qualifi- 
cation, after  no  want  of  care  in  examining  their  sources  and  their 
grounds^  I  firmly  and  deliberately  believe  them. 

"Without  entering  at  length  into  the  reasons  which  have  led 
me  t'hu^  CO  trouble  you,  I  shall  state  fhese  three  only  :  first,  that 
the  present  practices  of  the  Orovernment  of  Naples,  in  reference  to 
real  or  supposed  political  offenders,  are  an  outrage  upon  rehgion, 
upon  civilisation,  upon  humanity,  and  upon  decency.  'Secondly, 
that  these  practices  are  certainly,  and  even  rapidly,  doing  the  work 
of  republicanism  in  that  country :  a  political  creed,  which  has  little 
natural  or  habitual  root  in  the  character  of  the  people.  Thirdly, 
that  as  a  member  of  the  Conservative  party  in  one  of  the  great 
family  of  European  nations,  I  am  compelled  to  remember,  that 
that  party  stands  in  virtual  and  real,  though  perhaps  unconscious, 
alliance  with  all  the  established  Grovernments  •f  Europe^as  such; 
and  that,  according  to  the  measure  of  its  influence,  they  suffer 
more  or  less  of  moral  detriment  from  its  reverses,  and  derive 
strength  and  encouragement  from  its  successes.  This  principle, 
which  applies  with  very  limited  force  to  the  powerful  States,  whose 
Grovernments  are  strong,  not  only  in  military  organization,  but  in 
the  habits  and  affections  of  the  people,  is  a  principle  of  great 
practical  importance  in  reference  to  the  Government  of  Naples, 
which,  from  whatever  cause,  appears  to  view  its  own  social,  like 
its  physical  position,  as  one  under  the  shadow  of  a  volcano,  and 
which  is  doing  everything  in  its  power  from  day  to  day  to  give 
reality  to  its  own  dangers,  and  fresh  intensity,  together  with  fresh 
cause,  to  its  fears. 

In  approaching  the  statement  of  the  case,  I  must  premise  that 
I  pass  over  an  important  prefatory  consideration,  with  respect  to 
the  whole  groundwork  of  governing  authority  in  the  kingdom  of 
the  Two  Sicilies  at  this  moment ;  and  that  I  shall  not  inquire 
whether,  according  to  reason  and  social  right,  the  actual  Govern- 
ment of  that  country  be  one  with  or  without  a  title,  one  of  law  or 
one  of  force.  I  shall  assume  that  the  Constitution  of  January, 
1848,  spontaneously  given,  sworn  to  as  irrevocable,  with  every 
circumstance  of  solemnity,  and  never  to  this  day  either  legally  or 


THE  NEAPOLITAN  GOVERNMENT.  7 

even  ostensibly  revoked,  (although  contravened  in  almost  every  act 
of  the  Government,)  never  existed,  and  is  a  pure  fiction.  I  will 
not  appeal  to  it,  because  such  an  appeal  might  give  color  to  the 
idea  that  my  desire  was  to  meddle  with  the  form  of  Government, 
and  might  thus  interfere  with  those  purposes  of  humanity  which, 
and  which  alone  in  the  first  instance,  I  propose  to  myself  and  to 
you:  whereas,  in  truth,  I  am  firmly  of  opinion  that  this  very 
important  matter  may  much  more  safely  and  Vvrisely,  and  indeed 
can  only  with  propriety  be  regarded  as  an  internal  question,  which 
it  is  for  the  Sovereign  of  the  country  to  settle  with  his  subjects, 
apart  from  any  intervention  of  ours ;  unless  indeed  questions  should 
incidentally  arise  affecting  it  under  the  treaty  of  1844  between 
the  Two  Sicilies  and  England,  upon  some  parts  of  which,  as  a 
colleague  of  your  Lordship,  I  had  the  honor  to  be  employed: 
"With  such  a  topic  at  present  I  can  have  nothing  to  do ;  nor  should 
I  have  alluded  to  the  Neapolitan  Constitution  in  this  place  at  all, 
but  because  a  recollection  of  the  main  facts  connected  with  it  is 
necessary  in  order  in  any  manner  to  explain  the  recent  conduct  of 
the  Government  of  Naples,  and  to  give  full  credibility  to  state- 
ments so  astonishing  as  those  which  I  shall  have  to  make. 

I  must  not  suppress  the  expression  of  my  full  persuasion,  that 
in  reading  this  letter  you  will  feel  disposed  to  ask,  how  can  con- 
duct so  inhuman  and  monstrous  be  pursued  without  a  motive,  and 
what  can  b^  the  motive  here  ?  To  answer  that  question  fully,  I 
must  enter  upon  the  history  of  the  Neapolitan  Constitution.  But 
for  the  present,  and  so  long  as  I  have  the  hope  of  any  prompt 
amendment  without  a  formal  controversy,  I  am  content  at  what- 
ever disadvantage  to  leave  that  question  unanswered,  though  a  re- 
ply to  it  is  certainly  essential  to  the  entire  development  of  my  case. 

One  other  prefatory  word  yet  remains.  In  these  pages  you 
will  find  no  reference  to  the  struggle  waged,  and  waged  success- 
fully, by  the  King  of  Naples  against  his  Sicilian  subjects,  or  to  the 
couduct  of  any  of  the  parties  either  immediately  or  indirectly  con- 
cerned in  it.  My  subject-matter  is  wholly  different ;  it  is  the 
conduct  of  the  Government  of  that  Sovereign  towards  the  Nea- 
politan or  continental  subjects,  through  whose  fidelity  and  courage 
the  subjugation  of  Sicily  was  effected. 

There  is  a  general  impression  that  the  organization  of  the  Go- 


8  STATE  PROSECUTIONS  OF 

vernments  of  Southern  Italy  is  defective — that  the  administration 
of  justice  is  tainted  with  corruption — that  instances  of  abuse  or 
cruelty  among  subordinate  public  functionaries  are  not  uncommon, 
and  that  political  offences  are  punished  with  severity,  and  with  no 
great  regard  to  the  forms  of  justice. 

I  advert  to  this  vague  supposition  of  a  given  state  of  things,  for 
the  purpose  of  stating  that,  had  it  been  accurate,  I  should  have 
spared  myself  this  labor.  The  difference  between  the  faintest 
outline  that  a  moment's  handling  of  the  pencil  sketches,  and  the 
deepest  coloring  of  the  most  elaborately  finished  portrait,  but 
feebly  illustrates  the  relation  of  these  vague  suppositions  to  the 
actual  truth  of  the  Neapolitan  case.  It  is  not  mere  imperfection, 
not  corruption  in  low  quarters,  not  occasional  severity,  that  I  am 
about  to  describe  :  it  is  incessant,  systematic,  deliberate,  violation 
of  the  law  by  the  Power  appointed  to  watch  over  and  maintain  it. 
It  is  such  violation  of  human  and  written  law  as  this,  carried  on 
for  the  purpose  of  violating  every  other  law  unwritten  and  eternal, 
human  and  divine  ;  it  is  the  wholesale  persecution  of  virtue  when 
united  with  intelligence,  operating  upon  such  a  scale  that  entire 
classes  may  with  truth  be  said  to  be  its  object,  so  that  the 
G-overnment  is  in  bitter  and  cruel,  as  well  as  utterly  illegal,  hostili- 
ty to  whatever  in  the  nation  really  lives  and  moves,  and  forms  the 
main-spring  of  practical  progress  and  improvement ;  it  is  the  awful 
profanation  of  public  religion,  by  its  notorious  alliance,  in  the 
governing  powers,  with  the  violation  of  every  moral  law  under  the 
stimulants  of  fear  and  vengeance  ;  it  is  the  perfect  prostitution  of 
the  judicial  office,  which  has  made  it,  under  veils  only  too  thread- 
bare and  transparent,  the  degraded  recipient  of  the  vilest  and 
clumsiest  forgeries,  got  up  wilfully  and  deliberately,  by  the  im- 
mediate advisers  of  the  Crown,  for  the  purpose  of  destroying  the 
peace,  the  freedom,  aye  and  even  if  not  by  capital  sentences  the 
life,  of  men  among  the  most  virtuous,  upright,  intelligent,  distin- 
guished, and  refined  of  the  whole  community  ;  it  is  the  savage 
and  cowardly  system  of  moral,  as  well  as  in  a  lower  degree  of 
physical,  torture,  through  which  the  sentences  extracted  from  the 
debased  courts  of  justice  are  carried  into  effect. 

The  effect  of  all  this  is,  total  inversion  of  all  the  moral  and  so- 
cial ideas.     Law,  instead  of  being  respected,  is  odious.     Force, 


THE  NEAPOLITAN  GOVERNMENT.  9 

and  not  affection,  is  the  foundation  of  Government.  There  is  no 
association,  but  a  violent  antagonism,  between  the  idea  of  freedom 
and  that  of  order.  The  governing  power,  which  teaches  of  itself 
that  it  is  the  image  of  Grod  upon  earth,  is  clothed,  in  the  view  of 
the  overwhelming  majority  of  the  thinking  public,  with  all  the 
vices  for  its  attributes.  I  have  seen  and  heard  the  strong  and  too 
true  expression  used,  "  This  is  the  negation  of  God  erected  into  a 
system  of  Government.""^ 

I  confess  my  amazement  at  the  gentleness  of  character,  which 
has  been  shown  by  the  Neapolitan  people  in  times  of  revolution. 
It  really  seems  as  if  the  hell-born  spirit  of  revenge  had  no  place 
whatever  in  their  breasts.  I  know  that  at  any  rate  some  illus- 
trious victims  are  supported  by  the  spirit  of  Christian  resignation, 
by  their  cheerful  acceptance  of  the  will  of  God.  But  the  present 
persecution  is  awfully  aggravated,  as  compared  with  former  ones  ; 
it  differs  too  in  this,  that  it  seems  to  be  specially  directed  against 
those  men  of  moderate  opinions,  whom  a  Goverment  well  stocked 
even  with  worldly  prudence,  whom  Machiavelli,  had  he  been  min- 
ister, would  have  made  it  his  study  to  conciliate  and  attach.  These 
men,  therefore,  are  being  cleared  away  ;  and  the  present  efforts 
to  drive  poor  human  nature  to  extremes  cannot  wholly  fail  in 
stirring  up  the  ferocious  passions,  w^hich  never,  to  my  belief,  since 
the  times  of  the  heathen  tyrants,  have  had  so  much  to  arouse,  or 
so  much  to  palliate  when  aroused,  their  fury. 

I  must  first  speak  of  the  extent  and  scale  of  the  present  pro- 
ceedings. 

The  general  belief  is,  that  the  prisoners  for  political  offences  in 
the  kingdom  of  the  Two  Sicilies,  are  between  fifteen,  or  twenty, 
and  thirty  thousand.  The  Government  withholds  all  means  of 
accurate  information,  and  accordingly  there  can  be  no  certainty 
on  the  point.  I  have,  however,  found  that  this  belief  is  shared  by 
persons  the  most  intelligent,  considerate,  and  well-informed.  It  is 
also  supported  by  what  is  known  of  the  astonishing  crowds  confined 
in  particular  prisons  ;  and  especially  by  what  is  accurately  known 
in  particular  provincial  localities,  as  to  the  numbers  of  individuals 
missing  from  among  the  community.    I  have  heard  these  numbers 

*  £J  la  negazione  di  Dio  eretta  a  sistema  digoverno. 


10  STATE  PROSECUTIONS  OF 

for  example  at  Reggio,  and  at  Salerno ;  and  from  an  effort  to 
estimate  them  in  reference  to  population,  I  do  believe  that  twenty 
thousand  is  no  unreasonable  estimate.  In  Naples  alone,  some 
hundreds  are  at  this  moment  under  indictment  capitally';  and 
when  I  quitted  it,  a  trial  was  expected  to  come  on  immediately, 
(called  that  of  the  fifteenth  of  May,)  in  which  the  number  charged 
was  between  four  and  five  hundred  ;  including  (though  this  is  a 
digression)  at  least  one  or  more  persons  of  high  station  whose 
opinions  would  in  this  country  be  considered  more  Conservative 
than  your  own. 

The  Neapolitan  Grovernment,  indeed,  appears  to  have  some- 
thing of  the  art  which  Mr.  Burke  declared  to  be  beyond  him  ;  he 
"  did  not  know  how  to  frame  an  indictment  against  a  people." 
After  considering  what  I  have  said,  pray  consider  next,  that  the 
number  of  refugees  and  persons  variously  concealed,  probably 
larger,  perhaps  much  larger,  than  that  of  the  prisoners,  is  also  to 
be  reckoned.  We  must  then  remember,  that  a  very  large  propor- 
tion of  these  prisoners  belong  to  the  middle  class,  (though  there 
are  also  considerable  numbers  of  the  working  class,)  and  further, 
that  the  numbers  of  the  middle  class,  in  the  kingdom  of  Naples, 
(of  which  region  I  shall  speak  all  through,  meaning  the  Regno,  or 
continental  dominions,  of  his  Sicilian  Majesty,)  must  be  a  much 
smaller  part  of  the  entire  population  than  they  are  among  our- 
selves. We  must  next  consider  that  of  these  persons  very  few  have 
independent  means  of  support  for  their  families ;  not  to  mention 
that,  as  I  hear^  confiscation  or  sequestration  upon  arrest  is  frequent. 
So  that,  generally,  each  case  of  a  prisoner  or  refugee  becomes  the 
centre  of  a  separate  circle  of  human  misery ;  and  now  there  may  be 
some  inkling  of  the  grounds  for  saying,  that  the  system,  the  charac- 
ter of  which  I  am  about  to  examine  further,  has  whole  classes  for 
its  object,  and  those  classes  the  very  classes  upon  which  the  health, 
solidity,  and  progress  of  the  nation  mainly  depend. 

But  why  should  it  seem  strange  that  the  G-overnment  of  Naples 
should  be  at  open  war  with  those  classes  ?  In  the  schools  of  the 
country  it  is,  I  have  heard,  compulsory  to  employ  the  political  Ca- 
techism ascribed  to  the  Canonico  Apuzzi,  of  which  I  have  a  copy. 
In  this  catechism,  civilization  and  barbarism  are  represented  as 
two  opposite  extremes,  both  of  them  vicious  ;  and  it  is  distinctly 


THE  NEAPOLITAN  GOVERNMENT.  H 

taught,  taught  therefore  by  the  Government  of  Naples,  that 
happiness  and  virtue  lie  in  a  just  mean  between  them. 

But  again.  Shortly  after  I  reached  Naples  I  heard  a  man 
of  eminent  station  accused,  with  much  vituperation,  of  having 
stated  that  nearly  all  those  who  had  formed  the  "  Opposition  "  in 
the  Chamber  of  Deputies  under  the  Constitution  were  in  prison  or 
in  exile.  I  frankly  own  my  impression  was,  that  a  statement 
apparently  so  monstrous  and  incredible  deserved  the  reprobation 
it  was  then  receiving.  It  was  (I  think)  in  November  last.  The 
Chamber  had  been  elected  by  the  people  under  a  Constitution 
freely  and  spontaneously  given  by  the  King :  elected  twice  over, 
and  with  little  change,  but  that  little  in  favor  of  the  Opposition. 
No  one  of  the  body,  I  think,  had  then  been  brought  to  trial,  (al- 
though I  may  state,  in  passing,  one  of  them  had  been  assassinated 
by  a  priest  named  Peluso,  well  known  in  the  streets  of  Naples 
when  I  w^as  there,  never  questioned  for  the  act,  and  said  to  receive 
a  pension  from  the  Grovernment.)  So  that  I  put  down  this  state- 
ment as  a  fiction,  and  the  circulation  of  it  as,  at  the  very  least,  a 
gross  indiscretion  or  more.  What  was  my  astonishment  when  I 
saw  a  list  in  detail  which  too  fully  proved  its  truth;  nay,  which 
in  the  most  essential  point  proved  more. 

It  appears,  my  dear  Lord,  that  the  full  complement  of  the 
Chamber  of  Deputies  was  164 ;  elected  by  a  constituency  which 
brought  to  poll  about  117,000  votes.  Of  these  about  140  was 
the  greatest  number  that  came  to  Naples  to  exercise  the  functions 
of  the  Chamber,  An  absolute  majority  of  this  number,  or  seventy- 
six,  besides  some  others  who  had  been  deprived  of  offices,  had 
either  been  arrested  or  had  gone  into  exile.  So  that  after  the  re- 
gular formation  of  a  popular  representative  Chamber,  and  its  sup- 
pression in  the  teeth  of  the  law,  the  Government  of  Naples  has 
consummated  its  audacity  by  putting  into  prison,  or  driving  into 
banishment,  for  the  sake  of  escaping  prison,  an  actual  majority  of 
the  representatives  of  the  people. 

I  have  now  said  enough  upon  the  scale  of  these  proceedings  ; 
and  I  pass  to  the  examination  of  their  character  :  and  first  their 
character  in  point  of  law,  because  I  have  charged  the  Government 
with  systematic  violation  of  it. 

The  law  of  Naples,   as  I  have   been   informed,   requires   that 


i^  STATE  PROSECUTIONS  OF 

personal  liberty  shall  be  inviolable,  except  under  a  warrant  from 
a  Court  of  Justice  authorised  for  the  purpose.  I  do  not  mean  the 
Constitution,  but  the  law  anterior  to  and  independent  of  the  Con- 
stitution. This  warrant,  I  understand,  must  proceed  upon  actual 
depositions,  and  must  state  the  nature  of  the  charge,  or  it  must 
be  communicated  immediately  afterwards,  I  am  not  sure  which. 

In  utter  defiance  of  this  law,  the  Government,  of  which  the 
Prefect  of  Police  is  an  important  member,  through  the  agents  of 
that  deparement,  watches  and  dogs  the  people,  pays  domiciliary 
visits,  very  commonly  at  night,  ransacks  houses,  seizing  papers 
and  effects,  and  tearing  up  floors  at  pleasure  under  pretence  of 
searching  for  arms,  and  imprisons  men  by  the  score,  by  the  hun- 
dred, by  the  thousand,  without  any  warrant  whatever,  sometimes 
without  even  any  written  authority  at  all,  or  anything  beyond  the 
word  of  a  policeman  ;  constantly  without  any  statement  whatever 
of  the  nature  of  the  offence. 

Nor  is  this  last  fact  wonderful.  Men  are  arrested,  not  because 
they  have  committed,  or  are  believed  to  have  committed,  any  of- 
fence ;  but  because  they  are  persons  whom  it  is  thought  conve- 
nient to  confine  and  to  get  rid  of,  and  against  whom  therefore 
some  charge  must  be  found  or  fabricated. 

The  first  process,  therefore,  commonly  is  to  seize  them  and 
imprison  them  ;  and  to  seize  and  carry  off  books,  papers,  or  what- 
ever else  these  degraded  hirelings  may  choose.  The  correspond- 
ence of  the  prisoner  is  then  examined,  as  soon  as  may  be  found 
convenient,  and  he  is  himself  examined  upon  it  :  in  secret,  with- 
out any  intimation  of  the  charges,  which  as  yet  in  fact  do  not  ex- 
ist ;  or  of  the  witnesses,  who  do  not  exist  either.  In  this  exami- 
nation he  is  allowed  no  assistance  whatever,  nor  has  he  at  this 
stage  any  power  of  communication  with  a  legal  adviser !  He  is 
not  examined  only,  but,  as  I  know,  insulted  at  will  and  in  the 
grossest  manner,  under  pretence  of  examination,  by  the  officers  of 
the  police.  And  do  not  suppose  this  is  the  fault  of  individuals. 
It  is  essential  to  the  system,  oi  which  the  essential  aim  is,  to 
create  a  charge.  What  more  likely  than  that,  smarting  under  in- 
sult, and  knowing  with  what  encouragement  and  for  whose  benefit 
it  is  offered,  the  prisoner  should  for  a  moment  lose  his  temper,  and 
utter  some  expression  disparaging  to  the  sacred   majesty  of  the 


THE  NEAPOLITAN  GOVERNMENT.  -IS 

Government  ?  If  he  does,  it  goes  down  in  the  minutes  against 
him  :  if  he  does  not,  but  keeps  his  self-command,  no  harm  is  done 
to  the  great  end  in  view. 

His  correspondence  is  examined  as  well  as  himself.  Suppose 
him  a  man  of  cultivated  intelligence  :  he  has  probably  watched 
public  affairs  and  followed  their  vicissitudes.  His  copies  of  letters, 
or  the  letters  to  him  which  he  may  have  kept,  will  contain 
allusions  to  them.  The  value  of  this  evidence  as  evidence  would 
of  course  depend  upon  giving  full  effect  to  all  these  allusions 
taken  in  connection  one  with  the  other.  But  not  so  :  any  expres- 
sion which  implies  disapproval  (since  nothing  is  easier  than  to 
construe  disapproval  into  disaffection,  disaffection  into  an  inten- 
tention  of  revolution  or  of  regicide)  is  entered  on  the  minutes. 
Suppose  there  happens  to  be  some  other,  which  ^tirely  destroys 
the  force  of  the  former,  and  demonstrates  the  loyalty  of  the 
victim  :  it  is  put  by  as  of  no  consequence  ;  and  if  he  remon- 
strate, it  is  in  vain.  In  countries  where  justice  is  regarded  acts 
are  punished,  and  it  is  deemed  unjust  to  punish  thoughts  ;  but  in 
this  case  thoughts  are  forged  in  order  that  they  may  be  punished. 
I  here  speak  of  what  I  know  to  have  happened,  and  have  imagined 
or  heightened  nothing. 

For  months,  or  for  a  year,  or  for  two  years,  or  three,  as  the 
case  may  be,  these  prisoners  are  detained  before  their  trials  ;  but 
very  generally  for  the  longer  terms.  I  do  not  happen  to  have 
heard  of  any  one  tried  at  Naples  on  a  political  charge,  in  these 
last  times,  with  less  than  sixteen  or  eighteen  months  of  previous 
imprisonment.  I  have  seen  men  still  waiting,  who  had  been  con- 
fined for  six  and  twenty  months  ;  and  this  confinement,  as  I  have 
said,  began  by  an  act  not  of  law,  but  of  force  in  defiance  of  law. 
There  may  be  cases,  doubtless  there  are,  of  arrest  under  warrant, 
after  depositions  :  but  it  is  needless  to  enter  upon  what  is,  I 
believe,  purely  exceptional. 

I  do  not  scruple  to  assert,  in  continuation,  that  when  every 
effort  has  been  used  to  concoct  a  charge,  if  possible,  out  of  the 
perversion  and  partial  production  of  real  evidence,  this  often  fails  : 
and  then  the  resort  is  to  perjury  and  to  forgery.  The  miserable 
creatures  to  be  found  in  most  communities,  but  especially  in 
those  where  the  Government  is  the  great  agent  of  corruption  upon 


14-  STA.TE  PROSECUTIONS  OF 

the  people,  the  wretches  who  are  ready  to  sell  the  liberty  and  life 
of  fellow-subjects  for  gold,  and  to  throw  their  own  souls  into  the 
bargain,  are  deliberately  employed  by  the  Executive  Power,  to 
depose  according  to  their  inventions  against  the  man  whom  it  is 
thought  desirable  to  ruin.  Although,  however,  practice  should  by 
this  time  have  made  perfect,  these  depositions  are  generally  made 
in  the  coarsest  and  clumsiest  manner  ;  and  they  bear  upon  them 
the  evidences  of  falsehood  in  absurdities  and  self-contradictions, 
accumulated  even  to  nausea.  But  what  then  ?  Mark  the  calcula- 
tion. If  there  is  plenty  of  it,  some  of  it,  according  to  the  vulgar 
phrase,  will  stick.  Do  not  think  I  am  speaking  loosely.  I  declare 
my  belief  that  the  whole  proceeding  is  linked  together  from  first 
to  last ;  a  depraved  logic  runs  through  it.  Inventors  must  shoot 
at  random,  therefore  they  take  many  strings  to  their  bow.  It 
would  be  strange  indeed,  and  contrary  to  the  doctrine  of  chances, 
if  the  whole  forged  fabric  were  dissolved  and  over-thrown  by  self- 
contradiction.  Now  let  us  consider  practically  what  takes  place. 
Suppose  nine-tenths  too  absurd  to  stand  even  before  the  Neapoli- 
tan Courts  ;  of  this  portion  some  is  withdrawn  by  the  police  and 
not  carried  into  the  trial  at  all,  after  they  have  been  made  aware, 
through  the  prisoner's  or  his  counsel's  assistance,  of  its  absurdity ; 
the  rest  is  overlooked  by  the  judges.  In  any  other  country  it 
would  of  course  lead  to  inquiry,  and  to  a  prosecution  for  perjury. 
Not  so  there  ;  it  is  rather  regarded  as  so  much  of  well-meant  and 
patriotic  effort,  which,  through  untoward  circumstances,  has  failed. 
It  is  simply  neutralized  and  stands  at  zero.  But  there  remains 
the  07?.6-tenth  not  self-contradicted.  "Well,  but  surely  you  will 
say  the  prisoner  will  be  able  to  rebut  that,  if  false,  by  counter- 
evidence.  Alas  !  he  may  have  counter-evidence  mountains  high, 
but  he  is  not  allowed  to  bring  it .  I  know  this  is  hardly  credi- 
ble, but  it  is  true.  The  very  men  tried  while  I  was  at  Naples, 
named  and  appealed  to  the  counter-evidence  of  scores  and 
hlindreds  of  men  of  all  classes  and  professions — military,  clergy, 
Grovernment  functionaries,  and  the  rest ;  but  in  every  instance, 
with,  I  believe,  one  single  exception,  the  Court,  the  Grand 
Criminal  Court  of  Justice,  refused  to  hear  it ;  and  in  that  one 
case  the  person,  when  called,  fully  bore  out  the  statement  of 
the  prisoner.     Of  course,    the    assertion   of    the   accused,    how- 


THE  NEAPOLITAN  GOVERNMENT.  10 

ever  supported  by  tlie  evidence  of  station  and  character,  goes 
for  nothing  against  the  small  remaining  fragment  not  self- 
destroyed  of  the  fictions  of  the  vilest  wretch,  however  such  a 
fragment  be  buried  beneath  presumptions  of  falsehood ;  and  this 
fragment  being  thus  secured  from  confutation,  forms  the  pillow  on 
which  the  consciences  of  the  judges,  after  the  work  of  condem- 
nation, calmly  and  quietly  repose. 

I  ought,  however,  to  point  out,  for  the  sake  of  accuracy,  that 
when  the  forged  testimony  has  been  procured,  the  Government 
are  in  a  condition  to  present  it  to  the  Court,  obtain  a  warrant,  and 
so  far  legalise  the  imprisonment. 

Now,  how  are  these  detenuti  treated  during  the  long  and  awful 
period  of  apprehension  and  dismay  between  their  illegal  seizure 
and  their  illegal  trial  ?  The  prisons  of  Naples,  as  is  well  known, 
are  another  name  for  the  extreme  of  filth  and  horror.  I  have 
really  seen  something  of  them,  but  not  the  worst.  This  I  have 
seen,  my  Lord  :  the  official  doctors  not  going  to  the  sick  prisoners, 
but  the  sick  prisoners,  men  almost  with  death  on  their  faces, 
toiling  upstairs  to  them  at  that  charnelhouse  of  the  Yicaria, 
because  the  lower  regions  of  such  a  palace  of  darkness  are  too 
foul  and  loathsome  to  allow  it  to  be  expected  that  professional 
men  should  consent  to  earn  bread  by  entering  them.  As  to  diet, 
I  must  speak  a  word  for  the  bread  that  I  have  seen.  Though 
black  and  coarse  to  the  last  degree,  it  was  sound.  The  soup, 
which  forms  the  only  other  element  of  subsistence,  is  so  nauseous, 
as  I  was  assured,  that  nothing  but  the  extreme  of  hunger  could 
overcome  the  repugnance  of  nature  to  it.  I  had  not  the  means  of 
tasting  it.  The  filth  of  the  prisons  is  beastly.  The  officers,  ex- 
cept at  night,  hardly  ever  enter  them.  I  was  ridiculed  for  reading 
with  some  care  pretended  regulations  posted  up  on  the  wall  of  an 
outer  room.  One  of  them  was  for  the  visits  of  the  doctors  to  the 
sick.  I  saw  the  doctors  with  that  regulation  over  them,  and  men 
with  one  foot  in  the  grave  visiting  them,  not  visited  by  them.  I 
have  walked  among  a  crowd  of  between  three  and  four  hundred 
Neapolitan  prisoners :  murderers,  thieves,  all  kinds  of  ordinary 
criminals,  some  condemned  and  some  uncondemned,  and  the 
politicaly  accused  indiscriminately  :  not  a  chain  upon  a  man  of 
them,  not  an  officer  nearer  than  at  the  end  of  many  apartments, 


le  STATE  PROSECUTIONS  OF 

with  many  locked  doors  and  gratings  between  us ;  but  not  only 
was  there  nothing  to  dread,  there  was  even  a  good  deal  of  polite- 
ness to  me  as  a  stranger.  They  are  a  self-governed  community, 
the  main  authority  being  that  of  the  gajnorristi^  the  men  of  most 
celebrity  among  them  for  audacious  crime.  Employment  they 
have  none.  This  swarm  of  human  beings  all  slept  in  a  long  low 
vaulted  room,  having  no  light  except  from  a  single  and  very  mode- 
rate sized  grating  at  one  end.  The  political  prisoners,  by  payment, 
had  the  privilege  of  a  separate  chamber  off  the  former,  but  there 
was  no  division  between  them. 

This  is  not  well,  but  it  is  far  from  being  the  worst.  I  will  now 
give  your  Lordship  another  specimen  of  the  treatment  administered 
at  Naples  to  men  illegally  arrested,  and  as  yet  uncondemned. 
From  the  7th  of  December  last  to  the  8d  of  February,  Pironte, 
who  was  formerly  a  judge,  and  is  still  a  gentleman,  and  who  was 
found  guilty  on  or  about  the  last  named  day,  spent  his  whole  days 
and  nights,  except  when  on  his  trial,  with  two  other  men,  in  a  cell 
at  the  Vicaria^  about  eight  feet  square,  below  the  level  of  the 
ground,  with  no  light  except  a  grating  at  the  top  of  the  wall,  out 
of  which  they  could  not  see.  Within  the  space  of  these  eight 
feet,  with  the  single  exception  I  have  named,  Pironte  and  his  com- 
panions were  confined  during  these  two  months ;  neither  for  Mass 
were  they  allowed  to  quit  it,  nor  for  any  other  purpose  what- 
soever !  This  was  in  Naples,  where  by  univ;ersal  consent  matters 
are  far  better  than  in  the  provinces.  The  presence  of  strangers 
has  some  small  influence  on  the  Government :  the  eye  of  humanity 
or  of  curiosity  pierces  into  some  dark  crannies  here,  that  are 
wholly  unpenetrated  in  the  remoteness  of  the  Provinces,  or  in  those 
lonely  islands  scattered  along  the  coast,  whose  picturesque  and 
romantic  forms  delight  the  eye  of  the  passing  voyager,  ignorant 
what  huge  and  festering  masses  of  human  suffering  they  conceal. 
This,  I  say,  was  in  Naples  ;  it  was  the  case  of  a  gentleman,  a 
lawyer,  a  judge,  accused  but  uncondemned.  Do  not  suppose  it  is 
selected  and  exceptional.  I  had  no  power  to  select,  except  from 
what  happened  to  become  known  to  me,  from  among  a  sample 
quite  insignificant  in  comparison  with  what  must  have  remained 
unknown  to  me.  And  now,  after  this  one  fact,  does  not  the 
strange    and    seemingly  mad    charge    I  have  made  against  the 


THE  NEAPOLITAN  GOVERNMENT.  JJ| 

Neapolitan  Government  begin,  as  the  light  of  detail  flows  in  upon 
it,  to  assume  method  and  determinate  figure  ? 

There  was  another  case  that  I  learned,  which  I  believe  I  can 
report  with  accuracy,  though  my  knowledge  of  it  is  not  quite  the 
same  as  of  the  last.  "When  I  left  Naples,  in  February,  the  Baron 
Porcari  was  confined  in  the  Maschio  of  Ischia.  He  was  accused 
of  a  share  in  the  Calabrian  insurrection,  and  was  awaiting  his  trial. 
This  Maschio  is  a  dungeon  without  light,  and  24  feet  or  palms  (I 
am  not  sure  which)  below  the  level  of  the  sea.  He  is  never 
allowed  to  quit  it  day  or  night,  and  no  one  is  permitted  to  visit 
him  there,  except  his  wife — once  a  fortnight ! 

I  have  now  ptebably  said  enough  of  the  proceedings  previous  to 
trial  ;  but  there  is  one  small  gap  to  fill  up.  If  the  arrest  is  contra- 
ry to  law,  why  not,  it  may  be  asked,  bring  an  action  for  false  im- 
prisonment ?  I  have  made  some  inquiry  upon  that  head.  I  under- 
stand that  as  in  other  points,  so  neither  in  this,  is  the  law  defective  ; 
that  such  an  action  might  probably  be  brought,  and  might  in 
argument  be  made  good,  but  the  want  is  that  of  a  Court  which 
would  dare  to  entertain  it.  This  will  be  better  understood  when 
I  come  to  speak  of  the  political  sentences :  for  the  present  I  pass  on. 

And  now,  perhaps,  I  cannot  do  better  than  to  furnish  a  thread 
to  my  statement  by  dealing  particularly  with  the  case  of  Carlo 
Poerio.  It  has  every  recommendation  for  the  purpose.  His 
father  was  a  distinguished  lawyer.  He  is  himself  a  refined  and 
accomplished  gentleman,  a  copious  and  eloquent  speaker,  a  re- 
spected and  blameless  character.  I  have  had  the  means  of  ascer- 
taining in  some  degree  his  political  position.  He  is  strictly  a 
Constitutionalist ;  and  while  I  refrain  from  examining  into  the 
shameful  chapter  of  Neapolitan  history  which  that  word  might 
open,  I  must  beg  you  to  remember  that  its  strict  meaning  there  is 
just  the  same  as  here,  that  it  signifies  a  person  opposed  in  heart 
to  all  violent  measures  from  whatever  quarter,  and  having  for  his 
political  creed  the  maintenance  of  the  monarchy  on  its  legal  basis, 
by  legal  means,  and  with  all  the  civilizing  improvements  of  laws 
and  establishments  which  may  tend  to  the  welfare  and  happiness 
of  the  community.  His  pattern  is  England,  rather  than  America 
or  France.  I  have  never  heard  him  charged  with  error  in  politics, 
other  than  such  as  can  generally  be  alleged  with  truth  against  the 
2 


18  STATE  PROSECUTIONS  OV 

most  highminded  and  loyal,  the  most  intelligent  and  constitutional^ 
of  our  own  statesmen.  I  must  say,  after  a  pretty  full  examina- 
tion of  his  case,  that  the  condemnation  of  such  a  man  for  treason 
is  a  proceeding  just  as  much  conformable  to  the  laws  of  truths 
justice,  decency  and  fair  play,  and  to  the  common  sense  of  the 
community,  in  fact  just  as  great  and  gross  an  outrage  on  them 
all,  as  would  be  a  like  condemnation  in  this  country  of  any  of 
our  best  known  public  men.  Lord  John  Russell,  or  Lord  Lans- 
downe,  or  Sir  James  Graham,  or  yourself.  I  will  not  say  it  is  pre- 
cisely the  same  as  respects  his  rank  and  position,  but  they  have 
scarcely  any  public  man  who  stands  higher,  nor  is  there  any  one 
of  the  names  I  have  mentioned  dearer  to  the  English  nation — per- 
haps none  so  dear — as  is  that  of  Poerio  to  his  Neapolitan  fellow- 
countrymen. 

I  pass  by  other  mournful  and  remarkable  cases,  such  as  that 
of  Settembrini,  who,  in  a  sphere  by  some  degrees  narrower,  but 
with  a  character  quite  as  pure  and  fair,  was  tried  with  Poerio  and 
forty  more,  and  was  capitally  convicted,  in  February,  though 
through  a  humane  provision  of  the  law  the  sentence  was  not  ex- 
ecuted ;  but  he  has,  I  fear,  been  reserved  for  a  fate  much  harder  i 
double  irons  for  life,  upon  a  remote  and  sea-girt  rock  :  nay,  there 
may  even  be  reason  to  fear  that  he  is  directly  subjected  to  physical 
torture.  The  mode  of  it,  which  was  specified  to  me  upon  respec- 
table though  not  certain  authority,  was  the  thrusting  of  sharp  in- 
struments under  the  finger-nails. 

I  shall  likewise  say  very  little  upon  the  case  of  Faucitano,  who, 
like  Settembrini,  was  tried  with  Poerio  in  the  same  batch  of  forty- 
two  prisoners  during  the  winter.  His  case  is  peculiar,  since  thero 
really  was  a  foundation  for  the  charge.  The  charge  was  an  in- 
tention to  destroy,  by  means  of  some  terrible  explosive  agents^ 
several  of  the  Ministers  and  other  persons.  The  foundation  was, 
that  he  had  in  his  breast-pocket,  on  a  great  public  occasion,  a 
single  bottle,  which  exploded  there  without  injuring  him  in  life  or 
limb  !  It  is  likely  that  he  had  intended  some  freak  or  folly,  but  he 
was  condemned  to  death.  Till  within  a  few  hours  of  the  tim& 
appointed,  it  was  believed  he  would  be  executed.  The  Bianchi 
were  in  the  streets,  collecting  alms  to  purchase  masses  for  his 
soul.     He  was  in  the  chapel  of  the  condemned,  with  the  priesta 


THE  NEAPOLITAN  GOVERliaiENT.  19 

about  Mm,  when  during  the  night,  his  case  having  been  discussed 
at  a  council  in  the  daytime,  there  came  down  from  Caserta  a  mes- 
senger with  orders  for  his  reprieve.  I  have  learned  the  agency 
through  which  that  reprieve  was  procured,  but  the  notice  of  it  is 
unnecessary  for  my  present  purpose. 

Carlo  Poerio  was  one  of  the  Ministers  of  the  Crown  under  the 
Constitution,  and  had  also  one  of  the  most  prominent  positions  in 
the  Neapolitan  Parliament.  He  was,  as  regarded  the  Sicilian 
question,  friendly  to  the  maintenance  of  the  unity  of  the  kingdom. 
He  was  also  friendly  to  the  War  of  independence,  as  it  was  termed  ; 
but  I  have  never  heard  that  he  manifested  greater  zeal  in  that 
matter  than  the  King  of  Naples ;  it  is  a  question,  of  course, 
wholly  irrespective  of  what  we  have  now  to  consider.  Poerio  ap- 
peared to  enjoy  the  King's  full  confidence  ;  his  resignation,  when 
offerred,  was  at  first  declined,  and  his  advice  asked  even  after  its 
acceptance. 

The  history  of  his  arrest,  as  detailed  by  himself,  in  his  address 
of  February  8, 1850,  to  his  judges,  deserves  attention.  The  even- 
ing before  it  (July  18,  1849)  a  letter  was  left  at  his  house  by  a 
person  unknown,  conceived  in  these  terms  : — "  Fly  ;  and  fly  with 
speed.  You  are  betrayed !  the  Government  is  already  in  posses- 
sion of  your  correspondence  with  the  Marquis  Dragonetti.  From 
one  who  loves  you  much."  Had  he  fled,  it  would  have  been 
proof  of  guilt,  ample  for  those  of  whom  we  are  now  speaking.  But 
he  was  aware  of  this,  and  did  not  fly.  Moreover,  no  such  corres- 
pondence existed.  On  the  19th,  about  four  in  the  afternoon,  two 
persons,  presenting  themselves  at  his  door  under  a  false  title,  ob- 
tained entry,  and  announced  to  him  that  he  was  arrested  in  virtue 
of  a  verbal  order  of  Peccheneda,  the  Prefect  of  Police.  He  pro- 
tested in  vain  :  the  house  was  ransacked  :  he  was  carried  into 
solitary  confinement.  He  demanded  to  be  examined,  and  to  know 
the  cause  of  his  arrest  within  twenty-four  hours,  according  to  law^ 
but  in  vain.  So  early,  hov/ever,  as  on  the  sixth  day,  he  was 
brought  before  the  Commissary  Maddaloni ;  and  a  letter,  with  the 
seal  unbroken,  was  put  into  his  hands.  It  was  addressed  to  him, , 
and  he  was  told  that  it  had  come  under  cover  to  a  friend  of  the 
Marquis  Dragonetti,  but  that  the  cover  had  been  opened  in  mis- 
take by  an  officer  of  the  police,  who  happened  to  have  the  ibamo 


20  STATE  PROSECUTIONS  OF 

name,  though  a  different  surname,  and  who,  on  perceiving  what 
was  within,  handed  both  to  the  authorities.  Poerio  was  desired  to 
open  it,  and  did  open  it,  in  the  presence  of  the  Commissary. 
Thus  far,  nothing  could  be  more  elaborate  and  careful  than  the 
arrangement  of  the  proceeding.  But  mark  the  sequel.  The  mat- 
ter of  the  letter  of  course  was  highly  treasonable ;  it  announced 
an  invasion  by  Garibaldi,  fixed  a  conference  with  Mazzini,  and  re- 
ferred to  a  correspondence  with  Lord  Palmerston,  whose  name  was 
miserably  mangled,  who  promised  to  aid  a  proximate  revolution. 
"  I  perceived  at  once,"  says  Poerio,  "that  the  handwriting  of  Dra- 
gonetti  was  vilely  imitated,  and  I  said  so,  remarking  that  the  in- 
ternal evidence  of  sheer  forgery  was  higher  than  any  amount  of 
material  proof  w^hatever."  Dragonetti  was  one  of  the  most  accom- 
plished of  Italians;  whereas  this  letter  was  full  of  blunders,  both 
of  grammar  and  of  spelling.  It  is  scarcely  worth  while  to  notice 
other  absurdities ;  such  as  the  signature  of  name,  surname,  and 
title  in  full,  and  the  transmission  of  such  a  letter  by  the  ordinary 
post  of  Naples.  Poerio  had  among  his  papers  certain  genuine  let- 
ters of  Dragonetti's  ;  they  were  produced  and  compared  with  this  ; 
and  the  forgery  stood  confessed.  Upon  the  detection  of  this  mon- 
strous iniquity,  what  steps  were  taken  by  the  Government  to 
avenge  not  Poerio,  but  public  justice  ?  None  whatever  :  the  pa- 
pers were  simply  laid  aside. 

I  have  taken  this  detail  from  Poerio  himself,  in  his  Defence ; 
but  all  Naples  knows  the  story,  and  knows  it  with  disgust. 

Poerio's  papers  furnished  no  matter  of  accusation. 

It  was  thus  necessary  to  forge  again ;  or  rather  perhaps  to  act 
upon  forgeries  which  had  been  prepared,  but  which  were  at  first 
deemed  inferior  to  the  Dragonetti  letter. 

A  person  named  Jervolino,  a  disappointed  applicant  for  some 
low  office,  had  been  selected  for  the  work  both  of  espionage  and  of 
perjury ;  and  Poerio  was  now  accused,  under  information  from 
him,  of  being  among  the  chiefs  of  a  republican  sect,  denominated 
the  Unita  Italiana^  and  of  an  intention  to  murder  the  King.  He 
demanded  to  be  confronted  with  his  accuser.  He  had  long  before 
known,  and  named  Jervolino  to  his  friends  as  having  falsely  de- 
nounced him  to  the  Government ;  but  the  authorities  refused  to 
confront  them ;  the  name  was  not  even  told  him ;  he  went  from 


THE  NEAPOLITAN  GOVERN^IENT.  4JS| 

one  prison  to  another;  he  was  confined,  as  he  alleges,  in  places  fit 
for  filthy  brutes  rather  than  men  ;  he  was  cut  off  from  the  sight  of 
friends ;  even  his  mother,  his  sole  remaining  near  relation  in  the 
country,  was  not  permitted  to  see  him  for  two  months  together. 
Thus  he  passed  some  seven  or  eight  months  in  total  ignorance  of 
any  evidence  against  him,  or  of  those  who  gave  it.  During  that 
interval  Signer  Antonio  de'  Duchi  di  Santo  Vito  came  to  him,  and 
told  him  the  G-overnment  knew  all ;  but  that  if  he  would  confess, 
his  life  would  be  spared.  He  demanded  of  his  judges  on  his  trial 
that  Santo  Vito  should,  be  examined  as  to  this  statement :  of 
course  it  was  not  done.  But  jjiore  than  this.  Signer  Peccheneda 
himself,  the  director  of  the  police,  and  holding  the  station  of  a 
cabinet  minister  of  the  King,  went  repeatedly  to  the  prison,  sum- 
moned divers  prisoners,  and  with  flagrant  illegality  examined  them 
himself,  without  witnesses,  and  without  record.  One  of  these  was 
Carafa.  By  one  deposition  of  this  Carafa,  who  was  a  man  of  noble 
family,  it  was  declared,  that  Peccheneda  himself  assured  him  his 
matter  should  be  very  easily  arranged,  if  he  would  only  testify  to 
Poerio's  acquaintance  with  certain  revolutionary  handbills.  It 
could  not  be ;  and  the  cabinet  minister  took  leave  of  Carafa  with 
the  words — "  Very  well,  sir  ;  you  wish  to  destroy  yourself;  I  leave 
you  to  your  fate." 

Such  was  the  conduct  of  Peccheneda,  as  Poerio  did  not  fear  to 

, state  it  before  his  judges.     I  must  add,  that  I  have  heard  upon 

indubitable  authority  of  other  proceedings  of  that  minister  of  the 

King  of  Naples,  which  fully  support  the  credibility  of  the  charge. 

Besides  the  dcnunzia^  or  accusation  of  Jervolino,  on  which 
the  trial  ultimately  turned,  there  was  against  Poerio  the  evidence 
given  by  Romeo,  a  printer,  and  co-accused,  to  the  effect  that  he 
,  had  heard  another  person  mention  Poerio  as  one  of  the  heads  of 
the  sect.  The  value  of  this  evidence  may  be  estimated  from  the 
fact  that  it  included  along  with  Poerio  two  of  the  persons  ^/iew 
ministers,  the  Cav.  Bozzelli  and  the  Principe  di  Torella.  It  was 
in  fact  abandoned  as  worthless,  for  it  spoke  of  Poerio  as  a  chief  in 
the  sect ;  but  this  was  in  contradiction  with  Jervolino,  and  the 
charge  of  membership  only  was  prosecuted  against  him.  But 
again,  you  will  remark,  the  prisoner  in  no  way  took  benefit  from 
the  explosion  or  failure  of  any  charge ;   all  proceedings  went  on 


22  STATE  PROSECUTIONS  OF 

the  principle  that  the  duty  of  G-overnment  was  to  prove  guilt,  by 
means  true  or  false,  and  that  public  justice  has  no  interest  in  the 
acquittal  of  the  innocent. 

There  was  also  the  testimony  of  Margherita,  another  of  the 
co-accused.  He  declared,  upon  an  after  thought,  that  Poerio 
attended  a  meeting  of  the  high  council  of  the  sect.  He  declared 
also  that,  as  a  member  of  this  republican  and  revolutionary  sect, 
Poerio  was  one  of  three,  who  contended  for  maintaininsf  the 
monarchical  constitution ;  and  that  he  was  accordingly  expelled  ! 
On  this  ground,  not  to  mention  others,  the  evidence  of  Margherita 
was  unavailable. 

It  is  too  easy  to  understand  why  these  efforts  were  made  by 
the  co-accused  at  inculpating  Poerio  and  other  men  of  consideration. 
But  they  did  not  issue  in  relief  to  the  parties  who  made  them, 
perhaps  because  their  work  was  so  ill-executed,  or  even  their 
treachery  not  thought  genuine.  Margherita  was  confined  at  Nisida, 
in  February,  in  the  same  room  with  those  whom  he  had  denounced. 
Nay,  he  had  actually  been  chained  to  one  of  them.  I  shall  here- 
after describe  what  this  joint  chaining  is. 

The  accusation  then  of  Jervolino*  formed  the  sole  real  basis  of 
the  trial  and  condemnation  of  Poerio. 

Upon  this  evidence  of  a  man  without  character  or  station,  and 
who  was  a  disappointed  suitor  for  office  that  he  thought  he  should 
have  had  by  Poerio' s  means,  a  gentleman  of  the  highest  character, 
recently  a  confidential  and  favored  servant  of  the  King,  was  put 
upon  trial  for  his  life. 

The  matter  of  the  accusation  was  this.  Jervolino  stated  that, 
having  failed  to  obtain  an  office  through  Poerio,  he  asked  him  to 
enrol  him  in  the  sect  of  the  Unitd  Italiana.  That  Poerio  put  him 
in  charge  of  a  person  named  Attanasio,  who  was  to  take  him  to 
another  of  the  prisoners,  named  Nisco,  that  he  might  be  admitted. 
That  Nisco  sent  him  to  a  third  person,  named  Ambrosio,  who 
initiated  him.  He  could  not  recollect  any  of  the  forms,  nor  the 
oath  of  the  sect !  Of  the  certificate  or  diploma,  or  of  the  meetings, 
which  the  rules  of  the  sect  when  published  (as  the  Grovernment 

*  Poerio  was  named  in  the  evidence  of  GarafiEi ;  but  in  a  manner  tending  positively  to 
prove  his  innocence. 


THE  NEAPOLITAN  GOVERNMENT.  23 

professed  to  have  found  them)  proved  to  be  indispensable  for  all 
its  members,  he  knew  nothing  whatever  ! 

How  did  he  know,  said  Poerio,  that  I  was  of  the  sect  when  he 
asked  me  to  admit  him  ?  No  answer.  Why  could  not  Nisco,  who 
is  represented  in  the  accusation  as  a  leader,  admit  him?  No  an- 
swer. If  I,  being  a  Minister  of  the  Crown  at  the  time,  was  also  a 
member  of  the  sect,  could  it  be  necessary  for  me  to  have  him  thus 
referred  to  one  person,  and  another,  and  a  third,  for  admission? 
No  answer.  Why  has  not  Ambrosio,  who  admitted  him,  been 
molested  by  the  Grovernment  ?  No  answer.  Could  I  be  a  secta- 
rian when,  as  a  Minister,  I  was  decried  and  reviled  by  the  exalted 
party  in  all  their  journals  for  holding  fast  by  the  Constitutional 
Monarchy  ?  No  answer.  Nay,  such  was  the  impudent  stupidity 
of  the  informer,  that,  in  detailing  the  confidences  which  Poerio, 
as  he  said,  had  made  to  him,  he  fixed  the  last  of  them  in  May  29, 
1849  ;  upon  which  Poerio  showed  that  on  May  21,  or  seven  days 
before,  he  was  in  possession  of  a  written  report  and  accusation, 
made  by  Jervolino,  as  the  appointed  spy  upon  him,  to  the  police : 
and  yet,  with  this  in  his  hand,  he  still  continued  to  make  him  a 
political  confidant ! 

Such  was  a  specimen  of  the  tissue  of  Jervolino's  evidence  ; 
such  its  contradictions  and  absurdities.  Jervolino  had,  shortly 
before,  been  a  beggar  ;  he  now  appeared  well  dressed  and  in  good 
condition.  I  have  stated  that  the  multitudes  of  witnesses  called 
by  the  accused  in  exculpation  were  in  no  case  but  one  allowed  to 
be  called.  That  one,  as  I  have  learned  it,  was  this  : — Poerio  al- 
leged, that  a  certain  archpriest  declared  Jervolino  had  told  him  h'e 
received  a  pension  of  twelve  ducats  a  month  from  the  Government 
for  the  accusations  he  was  making  against  Poerio :  and  the  arch- 
priest,  on  the  prisoner's  demand,  was  examined.  The  archpriest 
confirmed  the  statement,  and  mentioned  two  more  of  his  relatives 
who  could  do  the  same.  In  another  case  I  have  heard  that  six 
persons  to  whom  a  prisoner  appealed  as  witnesses  in  exculpation, 
were  thereupon  themselves  arrested.     Nothing  more  likely. 

I  myself  heard  Jervolino's  evidence  discussed,  for  many  hours, 
in  court ;  and  it  appeared  to  me  that  the  tenth  part  of  what  I 
heard  should  not  only  have  ended  the  case,  but  have  secured  his 
condign  punishment  for  perjury. 


^  STATE  PROSEGUTIOlfS  OF 

I  must,  however,  return  to  the  point,  and  say,  even  had  hm 
evidence  been  self-consistent  and  free  from  the  grosser  presump- 
tions of  untruth,  >the  very  fact  of  his  character,  as  compared  with 
Poerio's,  was  enough  to  have  secured  the  acquittal  of  the  accused 
with  any  man  who  had  Justice  for  his  object.  Nor  do  I  believe 
there  is  one  man  in  Naples,  of  average  intelligence,  who  believes 
one  word  of  the  accusation  of  Jervolino. 

Two  exceptions  were  taken  in  the  course  of  these  proceedings. 
It  was  argued  by  the  counsel  for  Poerio,  that  the  Grrand  Court 
Extraordinary,  before  which  the  trial  took  place,  was  incompetent 
to  deal  with  the  case,  because  the  charge  referred  to  his  conduct 
while  a  minister  and  a  member  of  the  Chamber  of  Deputies  :  and 
by  the  48th  Article  of  the  Constitutional  Statute  all  such  charges 
were  to  be  tried  by  the  Chamber  of  Peers.  The  exception  was 
rejected  :  and  the  rejection  confirmed  upon  appeal. 

The  second  exception  was  this.  It  was  distinctly  charged 
against  the  prisoners  that  their  supposed  sect  had  conspired 
against  the  life  of  some  of  the  Ministers,  and  of  the  judge  Dome- 
nic-antonio  Navarro,  the  President  of  the  Court ;  first,  by  means 
of  the  bottle  that  exploded  in  the  pocket  of  Faucitano ;  secondly^ 
by  means  of  a  body  of  pugnalatori  or  assassins,  who  were  to  do 
the  work  if  the  bottle  failed.  This  intention  purported  to  be 
founded  on  the  cruelty  of  the  judgments  he  had  pronounced  upon 
innocent  persons.  The  prisoners  protested  against  being  tried  by 
him,  and  he  himself  presented  a  note  to  the  Court  stating  he  felt 
scruples  about  proceeding  with  the  case,  and  desired  to  be  guided 
by  the  rest  of  the  Court.  The  Court  unanimously  decided  that  he 
ought  to  sit  and  judge  these  men  upon  a  charge  including  the 
allegation  of  their  intent  to  murder  him ;  and  fined  the  prisoners 
and  their  counsel  100  ducats  for  taking  the  objection  !  This  de- 
cision, too,  was  confirmed  upon  appeal ;  and  the  Courts  both 
sagely  observed,  that  the  scruple  felt  by  Navarro  was  itself  such 
a  proof  of  the  impartial,  delicate,  and  generous  nature  of  his  mind^ 
as  ought  to  show  that  he  could  not  possibly  be  under  any  bias ; 
while  they  admitted,  that  under  the  law  of  Naples,  if  he  had  even 
within  five  years  been  engaged  in  any  criminal  suit  as  a  party 
against  them,  he  could  not  have  sat.  So  this  delicate,  impartial^ 
and  generous- minded  man,  accordingly,  sat  and  tried  the  prison- 


THE  NEAPOLITAN  GOVERNMENT.  2$ 

ers.  In  the  case  where  I  have  heard  the  detail  of  the  voting  of  the 
judges,  Navarro  voted  for  condemnation,  and  for  the  severest  form 
of  punishment.  I  have  been  told,  and  I  believe  he  makes  no  se- 
cret of  his  opinion,  that  all  persons  charged  by  the  King's  Gov- 
ernment ought  to  be  found  guilty.  I  have  been  told,  and  I  fully 
believe,  that  Poerio,  whose  case  was  certainly  a  pretty  strong  one, 
even  for  the  Neapolitan  judges,  would  have  been  acquitted  by  a 
division  of  four  to  four  (such  is  the  humane  provision  of  the  law 
in  case  of  equality)  had  not  Navarro,  by  the  distinct  use  of  intim- 
idation, that  is  of  threats  of  dismissal,  to  a  judge  whose  name  has 
been  told  me,  procured  the  number  necessary  for  a  sentence. =*"  But 
I  need  not  go  into  these  foul  recesses.  I  stand  upi>n  the  fact  that 
Navarro,  whose  life,  according  to  the  evidence  for  the  charge,  was 
aimed  at  by  the  prisoners,  sat  as  President  of  the  Court  that  tried 
them  for  their  lives  ;  and  I  ask  whether  language  can  exaggerate 
the  state  of  things  in  a  country  where  such  enormities  are  perpe- 
trated under  the  direct  sanction  of  the  Government  ? 

So  much  for  the  exceptions.  I  must  observe  on  another  curious 
point,  with  reference  to  the  court  of  justice.  It  did  not  sit  as  an 
ordinary,  but  as  a  special.  Court.  When  a  Court  sits  specially, 
it  is  with  Of  view  to  dispatch.  On  these  occasions  the  process  is 
fihortened  by  the  omission  of  many  forms,  most  valuable,  as  I  am 
assured,  for  the  defence  of  the  prisoner.  Above  forty  persons, 
on  that  single  occasion,  were  thus  robbed  of  important  aids,  with 
a  view  to  expedition ;  and  yet  these  men  had  be.en  sixteen  or 
eighteen  months  and  upwards  in  prison  before  they  were  brought 
to  trial ! 

I  shall  now  give  an  indication,  not  of  the  impartiality  of  the 
Court,  but  of  the  degree  of  decency  with  which  its  partiality  is 
veiled.  In  two  cases  it  happened  to  be  within  the  knowledge  of 
the  counsel  for  the  prisoners  that  the  perjured  witnesses  against 
them  did  not  even  know  them  by  sight.  In  one  of  these  the 
counsel  desired  to  be  allowed  to  ask  the  witness  to  point  out  the 
accused  person  among  the  whole  number  of  those  charged,  who 
were  all  sitting  together.     Tne  Court  refused  permission.     In  the 

*He  appears  to  have  been  finally  found  guilty  (of  belonging  to  the  sect)  by  six  of  his 
^u<lges— Note  ;  July  11,  1851. 


26  STATE  PROSECUTIONS  OF 

other  case,  the  counsel  challenged  the  witness  to  point  out  the 
man  of  whose  proceedings  he  was  speaking.  If  I  am  rightly  in- 
formed, Navarro,  whom  I  have  so  lately  mentioned,  affecting  not 
to  hear  the  question,  called  out  to  the  prisoner,  "  Stand  up,  Signer 
Nisco  :  the  Court  has  a  question  to  ask  you."  This  was  done, 
and  Counsel  then  informed  that  he  might  pursue  his  examination. 
A  laugh  of  bitter  mockery  ran  through  the  Court. 

I  must  now  place  before  you  an  example  of  the  humanity,  with 
which  invalid  prisoners  are  treated  by  the  Grrand  Criminal  Court 
at  Naples.  The  statement  is  not  mine  ;  but  it  proceeds  from  a 
gentleman  and  an  eye-witness,  and  one  who  thorougly  under- 
stands the  language. 

"  The  original  number  of  the  persons  under  trial  for  forming 
part  of  the  imaginary  society  christened  by  the  police  the  Unit^ 
Italiana,  was  forty-two.  The  list  was  headed  by  the  name  of 
Antonio  Leipnecher,  now  no  more.  His  illness  prevented  the 
Court  sitting  for  some  days.  At  last  Navarro  informed  the  medi- 
cal men  attached  to  the  prisons,  that  their  consciences  must  find 
means  to  certify  the  possibility  of  Leipnecher's  attendance  on  the 
following  morning. 

"  On  ihe  following  morning  I  was  on  my  way  to  the  tribunal 
with  a  friend,  when  we  met  one  of  the  doctors  with  whom  my  friend 
was  acquainted.  He  began  to  talk  about  Leipnecher,  and  said 
the  man  was  dangerously  ill,  but  that  his  position  was  such  that 
he  could  not  safely  certify  to  the  impossibility  of  his  attendance, 
and  that  he  had  consequently  informed  the  President  that  Leip- 
necher might  be  brought  into  Court  in  a  sedan  chair,  provided 
restoratives  were  allowed  him  and  no  question  ivere  asked  him. 

"  I  entered  the  Court,  and  after  the  other  prisoners  had  taken 
their  places,  a  sedan  chair  was  brought  in  from  which  Antonio 
Leipnecher  was  led,  or  rather  carried,  in  a  state  of  mental  and 
bodily  prostration. 

"  Navarro  opened  the  proceedings  by  calling  upon  the  Cancel- 
Here  to  read  the  interrogatorio  of  Antonio  Leipnecher,  and  when 
finished,  called  upon  him  for  his  observations.  His  lawyer  said 
that  he  had  already  endeavored  to  speak  to  him,  but  that  he  was 
unable  to  answer  or  understand.  Navarro  then  addressed  him  in 
a  menacing  tone,  cautioning  him  that  by  shamming  illness  he  was 


THE  NEAPOLITAN  GOVERNMENT.  27 

ruining  his  own  cause.  Leipnecher  made  some  inaudible  observa- 
tions, which  were  repeated  by  another  prisoner,  to  the  effect  that 
the  doctors  had  not  taken  any  pains  to  cure  him.  '  Oh  I'  said 
Navarro,  '  write  down  that  he  says  the  doctors  would  not  cure 
him.'  The  Procuratore  Generale,  Angelillo,  then  desired  that  the 
doctors  might  be  again  called  in  to  give  their  opinion  as  to  his 
present  state,  which  they  did  in  an  hour,  and  reported  him  suffer- 
ing from  an  acute  fever  and  unable  to  remain.  '  Bat,'  said  An- 
gelillo, '  as  he  is  here,  why  can  he  not  remain  ?'  '  He  cannot,' 
said  the  doctors,  ^  without  immediate  danger  to  his  life.'  The 
Court  then  broke  up,  and  when  it  again  met  in  the  course  of  two 
or  three  days,  Leipnecher  was  in  his  grave." 

But  I  know  that,  after  what  I  have  said  of  the  Grand  Criminal 
Court  of  Naples,  I  must  have  stirred  up  incredulity  in  the  breast 
of  any  one  accustomed  to  perceive  in  the  judges  of  a  country  the 
very  highest  impersonation  of  the  principles  of  honor  and  dis- 
passionate equity.  I  do  not  then  intend  to  urge  that  the  judges 
of  Naples  are  all  monsters,  but  they  are  slaves.  They  are  very 
numerous,  very  ill  paid,  and  they  hold  their  offices  during  pleasure. 
They  are  in  general  of  far  less  eminence  and  weight,  and  of  a 
lower  moral  standard,  than  the  higher  members  of  the  Bar  who 
plead  before  them.  The  highest  salary  of  any  person  on  the  bench 
of  judges  is,  I  believe,  4000  ducats  a  year.  Perhaps  the  eight 
judges  who  are  now  trying  political  prisoners  by  the  hundred  in 
Naples,  may  have  among  them  about  half  the  salary  of  one 
English  Puisne  Judge.  But  the  main  element  in  the  case  is,  the 
tyrannical  severity  with  which  they  are  treated  in  case  of  their 
defeating  the  accusations  brought  by  G-overnment.  Not,  indeed, 
that  acquittal  in  all  cases  signifies  much.  As  the  Grovernment 
arrest  and  imprison  without  any  warrant,  or  any  charge ;  so,  on 
the  same  broad  and  cherished  principle  of  illegality,  they  think 
nothing  of  keeping  men  in  prison  after  they  have  been  first  punished 
by  some  two  or  three  years  of  imprisonment  and  terror,  and  then 
solemnly  declared  gailtless.  For  example,  out  of  the  forty-one* 
prisoners   (reduced   from  forty-two  by  the  death  of  Leipnecher) 

*  This  number,  I  think,  should  be  forty :  tlie  number  acquitted,  eight;  the  number  con- 
demned, thirty  two. — Note,  July  11,  1851. 


!^  STATE  PROSECUTIONS  OF 

whose  cases  were  finally  disposed  of  by  the  sentences  of  last 
February,  six,  I  think,  were  acquitted  ;  and  the  last  I  heard  of 
those  six  persons,  some  time  after  their  acquittal,  was  that  they 
were  all  still  in  prison  !  Under  these  circumstances,  it  will  perhaps 
excite  no  surprise  that  the  judges  escaped  with  impunity,  in  con- 
sideration of  their  having  condemned  thirty-five  to  punishments 
for  the  most  part  awfully  severe.  But  woe  be  to  the  judges  them- 
selves ;f  they  baulk  the  main  object  of  a  prosecution.  In  Naples 
itself,  I  understand  that  a  gentleman  of  eighty  years  of  age,  who 
had  exercised  the  office  of  judge  for  half  a  century,  was  turned 
out  upon  the  world  a  short  time  ago,  for  having  acquitted  the 
parties  charged  with  having  composed  or  published  an  obnoxious 
article  in  a  newspaper.  A  more  notorious  case  has  recently  hap- 
pened at  Reggio.  A  batch  of  prisoners  were  there  brought  to 
trial  for  some  matter  connected  with  the  period  of  the  ill-fated 
Constitution.  Q'hey  were  acquitted  ;  and  the  arm  of  vengeance 
descended  upon  the  judges.  After  such  an  outrage  on  their  part, 
the  entire  Court,  as  if  an  Augean  stable,  was  swept  clear.  Two, 
Ij  believe — probably  the  docile  minority — had  only  a  nominal 
deprivation,  being  classed  as  dhponibili,  and  held  qualified  for 
new  appointments,  which,  for  all  I  know,  they  may  now  have 
received.  But  six  judges,  the  offending  majority,  were  mercilessly 
and  absolutely  dismissed.  How  can  we  be  surprised  that,  with 
this  perfection  of  discipline,  the  word  of  command  should  even  by 
judges  be  readily  obeyed  ? 

Three  of  the  forty-one  prisoners  in  what  I  may  call  the  Poerio 
case  were  condemned  to  death — Settembrini,  Agresti,  and  Fauci- 
tano.  Poerio  himself  was  condemned  to  twenty-four  years  of  irons. 
I  believe  the  vote  on  him  was  as  follows: — Three  judges  for  ac- 
quittal ;  two  for  irons  ;  three  (including  the  delicate,  scrupulous, 
and  impartial  mind  of  Navarro)  for  deatm — on  that  testimony  of 
Jervolino,  which  I  have  sufl[iciently  described.  The  two  latter  sec- 
tions then  joined  in  voting  for  the  lighter  punishment,  and  thus 
the  majority  was  obtained,  one  vote  having  been  at  first  drawn  off 
from  the  side  of  acquittal  by  the  bullying  process  to  which  I  have 
before  referred,  and  which  was  fitly  intrusted  to  the  delicate, 
scrupulous,  impartial,  and  generous  Navarro. 
*-     A  strange  error  is  stated  to  have  occurred.      It  seems  that  the 


THE  NEAPOLITAN  GOVERNMENT.  29 

Neapolitan  law  humanely  provides,  that  when  three  persons  are 
found  guilty  capitally,  the  sentence  can  be  pronounced  only  on 
one  ;  but  that  this  was  forgotten  by  the  judges,  and  only  found  out 
by  the  Proourator-Greneral,  or  some  other  party,  after  they  thought 
they  had  finished.  I  have  even  heard  it  stated  that  Settembrini 
and  Agresti  recdved,  as  of  mercy,  a  reprieve,  to  which  they  were 
entitled  as  of  right.  As  to  Faucitano,  I  will  not  enter  into  de- 
tails of  what  occurred  at  Caserta  in  the  palace,  but  I  have  hoard 
them,  and  minutely  too;  and  there  appears  to  me  too  good  reason 
to  believe  that  the  threat  of  the  withdrawal  of  certain  useful  sup- 
port from  the  Grovernment  of  Naples,  and  not  humanity,  dictated, 
at  the  last  moment,  the  commutation  of  his  punishment. 

Now  there  is  no  doubt  that  the  infliction  of  capital  punish- 
ment, under  judicial  sentences,  is  extremely  rare  in  the  kingdom 
of  Naples  ;  but  whatever  capital  punishment  may  be  in  other 
points  of  view,  I  do  not  hesitate,  to  say  it  would  be  a  refined 
humanity,  in  respect  to  the  amount  of  suffering  which  it  inflicts, 
in  whatever  form,  through  the  agency  of  man,  as  compared  with 
that  which  is  actually  undergone  in  sentences  of  imprisonment. 
Yet  even  on  the  severity  of  these  sentences  I  would  not  endeavor 
to  fix  attention  so  much  as  to  draw  it  off  from  the  great  fact  of 
illegality,  which  seems  to  me  to  be  the  foundation  of  the  Neapo- 
litan system  :  illegality,  the  fountain-head  of  cruelty  and  baseness, 
and  every  other  vice  ;  illegality,  which  gives  a  bad  conscience, 
that  bad  conscience  creates  fears,  those  fears  lead  to  tyranny,  that 
tyranny  begets  resentment,  that  resentment  creates  true  causes  of 
fear  where  they  were  not  before  ;  and  thus  fear  is  quickened  and 
enhanced,  the  original  vice  multiplies  itself  with  fearful  speed, 
and  old  crime  engenders  a  necessity  for  new. 

I  have  spoken  of  Settembrini  and  his  reputed  and  too  credible 
torture  ;  I  come  now  to  what  I  have  either  seen,  or  heard  on  the 
most  direct  and  unquestionable  authority. 

In  February  last,  Poerio  and  sixteen  of  the  co-accused  (with 
few  of  whom,  however,  he  had  had  any  previous  acquaintance) 
were  confined  in  the  Bagno  of  Nisida  near  the  Lazaretto.  For 
one  half-hour  in  the  week,  a  little  prolonged  by  the  leniency  of 
the  superintendent,  they  were  allowed  to  see  their  friends  outside 
the  prison.     This  was  their  sole  view  of  the  natural  beauties  with 

I  ■ 


30  STATE  PROSECUTIONS  OF 

which  they  were  surrounded.  At  other  times  they  were  ex- 
clusively within  the  walls.  The  whole  number  of  them,  except 
I  think  one,  then  in  the  infirmary,  were  confined,  night  and  day, 
in  a  single  room  of  about  sixteen  palms  in  length  by  ten  or  twelve 
in  breadth,  and  about  ten  in  height ;  I  think  with  some  small 
yard  for  exercise.  Something  like  a  fifth  must  be  taken  off  these 
numbers  to  convert  palms  into  feet.  When  the  beds  were  let 
down  at  night,  there  was  no  space  whatever  between  them  ;  they 
could  only  get  out  at  the  foot,  and  being  chained  two  and  two, 
only  in  pairs.  In  this  room  they  had  to  cook  or  prepare  what  was 
sent  them  by  the  kindness  of  their  friends.  On  one  side,  the  level 
of  the  ground  is  over  the  top  of  the  room  ;  it  therefore  reeked 
with  damp,  and  from  this,  tried  with  long  confinement,  they 
declared  they  suffered  greatly.  There  was  one  window —  of 
course  unglazed— and  let  not  an  Englishman  suppose  that  this 
constant  access  of  the  air  in  the  Neapolitan  climate  is  agreeable 
or  innocuous ;  on  the  contrary,  it  is  even  more  important  to 
health  there  than  here  to  have  the  means  of  excluding  the  open 
air,  for  example,  before  and  at  sunset.  Vicissitude  of  climate, 
again,  is  quite  as  much  felt  there  as  here,  and  the  early  morning 
is  sometimes  bitterly  cold. 

Their  chains  were  as  follows.  Each  man  wears  a  strong 
leather  girth  round  him  above  the  hips.  To  this  are  secured  the 
upper  ends  of  two  chains.  One  chain  of  four  long  and  heavy 
links  descends  to  a  kind  of  double  ring  fixed  round  the  ancle. 
The  second  chain  consists  of  eight  links,  each  of  the  same  weight 
and  length  with  the  four,  and  this  unites  the  two  prisoners 
together,  so  that  they  can  stand  about  six  feet  apart.  Neither  of 
these  chains  is  ever  undone,  day  or  night.  The  dress  of  common 
felons,  which,  as  well  as  the  felon's  cap,  was  there  worn  by  the 
late  cabinet-minister  of  King  Ferdinand  of  Naples,  is  composed  of 
a  rough  and  coarse  red  jacket,  with  trowsers  of  the  same 
material — very  like  the  cloth  made  in  this  country  from  what  is 
called  devil's  dust  ;  the  trowsers  are  nearly  black  in  color.  On 
his  head  he  had  a  small  cap,  which  makes  up  the  suit  ;  it  is  of 
the  same  material.  The  trowsers  button  all  the  way  up,  that 
they  may  be  removed  at  night  without  disturbing  the  chains. 

The  weight  of  these  chains,  I  understand,  is  about  eight  rotoli, 


THE  NEAPOLITAN  GOVERNMENT.  3t 

or  between  sixteen  and  seventeen  English  pounds  for  the  shorter 
one,  which  must  be  doubled  when  we  give  each  prisoner  his  half 
of  the  longer  one.  The  prisoners  had  a  heavy  limping  movement, 
much  as  if  one  leg  had  been  shorter  than  the  other.  But  the  re- 
finement of  suffering  in  this  case  arises  from  the  oircDmstance 
that  here  we  have  men  of  education  and  high  feeling  chained  in- 
cessantly together.  For  no  purpose  are  these  chains  undone  ; 
and  the  meaning  of  these  last  words  must  be  well  considered ; 
they  are  to  be  taken  strictly. 

Well,  it  may  be  thought,  the  practice  is  barbarous,  and  ought 
not  to  prevail ;  still,  as  it  does  prevail,  it  might  be  difficult  to  ex- 
empt these  persons,  although  gentlemen,  from  it.  But  this,  my 
Lord,  is  not  the  true  explanation.  On  the  contrary,  it  was  for  the 
sake  of  these  very  gentlemen  that  the  practice  of  chaining  two 
and  two  was  introduced  into  the  Bagno  of  Nisida.  I  was  assured 
that  two  or  three  weeks  before,  among  eight  hundred  prisoners  in 
that  bagno  (which  to  the  passer-by  looks  hardly  bigger  than  a 
martello  tower)  these  double  irons  were  totally  unknown;  and 
there  were  many  political  offenders  then  there,  but  they  were  men 
of  the  lower  class,  to  whom  th^s  kind  of  punishment  would  have 
been  but  a  slight  addition.  But  just  about  the  time  when  Poerio 
and  his  companions  were  sent  to  Nisida,  an  order  came  from 
Prince  Luigi,  the  brother  of  the  King,  who,  as  Admiral,  has  charge 
of  the  island,  ordering  that  double  irons  should  be  used  for  those 
who  had  been  brought  into  the  prison  since  a  certain  rather  recent 
date — I  think  July  22,  1850.  Thus  it  was  contrived  to  have  them 
put  on  Poerio  and  his  friends,  and  yet  to  have  a  plea,  such  as  it 
is,  for  saying  that  the  measure  was  not  adopted  with  a  view  to 
their  case,  and  to  the  extreme  moral  (as  well  as  the  not  slight  phy- 
sical) suffering  which  it  would  secure  for  them.  Among  these,  as 
I  had  already  said,  had  been  chained  together  the  informer  Mar- 
gherita  and  one  of  his  victims.  Among  these,  I  myself  saw  a 
political  prisoner,  Romeo,  chained  in  the  manner  1  have  described, 
to  an  ordinary  offender,  a  young  man  with  one  of  the  most  fero- 
cious and  sullen  countenances  I  have  seen  among  many  hundreds 
of  the  Neapolitan  criminals. 

The  inspector  of  this  prison.  General  Palo mba,   had,  I  was  in- 
formed, never,  or  not  for  a  very  long  time,  visited  it.     But  he  had 


32  STATE  PROSECUTIONS  OF 

come  just  before  I  was  there  ;  and  it  is  impossible  to  avoid  the  in- 
ference that  he  came  in  order  to  make  certain,  that  the  orders  for 
increased  severity  were  not  evaded  or  relaxed. 

I  had  heard  that  the  political  offenders  were  obliged  to  have 
their  heads  shaved  ;  but  this  had  not  been  done,  though  they  had 
been  obliged  to  shave  away  any  beard  they  might  have  had. 

I  must  say  I  was  astonished  at  the  mildness  with  which  they 
spoke  of  those  at  whose  hands  they  were  enduring  these  abomin- 
able persecutions,  and  at  their  Christian  resignation  as  well  as 
their  forgiving  temper,  for  they  seemed  ready  to  undergo  with 
cheerfulness  whatever  might  yet  be  in  store  for  them.  Their  health 
was  evidently  suffering.  I  saw  the  aunt  of  one  of  these  prisoners, 
a  man  of  about  eight  and  twenty,  weep  when  she  spoke  of  his 
altered  looks,  and  of  the  youthful  color  but  a  few  weeks  before  in 
his  cheeks.  I  should  have  taken  him  for  forty.  I  had  seen  Po- 
erio  in  December,  during  his  trial ;  but  I  should  not  have  known 
him  at  Nisida.  He  did  not  expect  his  own  health  to  stand,  although 
Grod,  he  said,  had  given  him  strength  to  endure.  It  was  suggested 
to  him  from  an  authoritative  quarter,  that  his  mother,  of  whom  he 
was  the  only  prop,  might  be  sent  to  the  King  to  implore  his  par- 
don, or  he  might  himself  apply  for  it.  He  steadily  refused.  That 
mother,  when  I  was  at  Naples,  was  losing  her  mental  powers  un- 
der the  pressure  of  her  afflictions.  It  seemed  as  if  God,  more  com- 
passionate than  her  fellow-creatures,  were  taking  them  away  in 
mercy,  for  she  had,  amidst  her  sorrow,  trances  and  visions  of  re- 
pose :  she  told  a  young  physician,  known  to  me,  that  she  had  been 
seeing  her  son,  and  with  him  another  person.  The  two  were  in 
different  gaols,  and  she  had  seen  neither. 

Since  I  have  left  Naples,  Poerio  has  sunk  to  a  lower  depth  of 
calamity.  He  has  been  taken,  I  understand,  from  Nisida  to  Ischia, 
farther  from  public  interest,  and  perhaps  to  some  abode  like  the 
Maschio  of  Porcari.  What  I  saw  was  quite  enough.  Never  be- 
fore have  I  conversed,  and  never  probably  shall  I  converse  again, 
with  a  cultivated  and  accomplished  gentleman,  of  whose  inno- 
cence, obedience  to  law,  and  love  of  his  country,  I  was  as  firmly 
and  as  rationally  assured  as  of  your  Lordship's  or  that  of  any  other 
man  of  the  very  highest  character,  whilst  he  stood  before  me 
amidst  surrounding  felons,   and  clad  in  the  vile  uniform  of  guilt 


THE  NEAPOLITAN  GOVERNMENT.  33 

and  shame.  But  he  is  now  gone  where  he  will  scarcely  have  the 
opportunity  even  of  such  conversation.  I  cannot  honestly  suppress 
my  conviction,  that  the  object  in  the  case  of  Poerio,  as  a  man  of 
mental  power  sufficient  to  be  feared,  is  to  obtain  the  scaffold's  aim 
by  means  more  cruel  than  the  scaffold,  and  without  the  outcry 
which  the  scaffold  would  create. 

It  is  time  for  me  to  draw  to  a  close.  I  might,  indeed,  detail 
circumstances  to  show  that  language  is  used  by  the  highest  au- 
thority in  Naples,  demonstrating  that  attachment  to  the  Constitu- 
tion, that  is  the  fundamental  law  of  the  State,  is  there  regarded 
and  punished  as  a  crime  ;  and  again,  to  show  that  men,  aye, 
ecclesiastics  as  well  as  laymen,  are  confessedly  detained  in  prison 
there,  not  because  they  have  committed  crime,  not  because  they 
are  even  suspected  of  it,  but  because  it  is  thought  that  through 
their  means  may  possibly  be  obtained  at  some  future  time,  some 
imaginable  information,  tending  to  inculpate  somebody  else.  But 
I  will  wind  up  this  repulsive  narration,  with  noticing  a  circum- 
stance that  too  clearly  shows  what  value  is  placed  by  those  in 
power  at  Naples  upon  human  life  as  such. 

I  have  spoken  of  the  Neapolitan  prisons.  It  appears  that,  not 
long  ago,  exasperated  by  the  treatment  they  received,  the  inmates 
of  the  State  prison  of  Procida  revolted,  and  endeavored  to  gain 
possession  of  the  prison.  The  mode  of  quelling  this  revolt  was  as 
follows.  The  soldiers  in  charge  of  them  threw  hand-grenades 
among  them,  and  killed  them  to  the  number  of  one  hundred  and 
seventy-five.  In  this  number  were  included  seventeen  invalids  in 
the  infirmary,  who  had  no  part  in  the  revolt.  I  have  been  told 
that,  for  perpetrating  this  massacre,  the  serjeant  who  commanded 
the  troops  was  decorated  with,  and  may  now  be  seen  wearing,  a 
military  order.  I  refer  to  this  incident  without  forgetting  that  a 
revolt  or  riot  in  a  prison  is  a  formidable  thing,  and  requires  strong 
measures  ;  but  with  the  overwhelming  force  everywhere  at  the 
command  of  the  Executive  power,  and  with  the  mild  character  of 
Neapolitans,  even  as  criminals,  taken  into  view,  no  one  will   be- 

.  lieve  that  there  was  the  slightest  call  for  this  wholesale  slaughter. 

P     ••  Enough,  it  seems  to  me,  has  now  been  said  to  show  that  there 
are  the  strongest  reasons  for  believing  that,  under  the  veil  of  se- 
crecy, which  covers  the  proceedings  of  the  Government  of  Naples, 
3 


34  STATE  PROSECUTIONS  OF 

there  lie  hid  the  gigantic  horrors,  to  which  I  have  alluded  as 
afflicting  that  country,  desolating  the  entire  classes  upon  which 
the  life  and  growth  of  the  nation  depend,  undermining  the  founda- 
tion of  all  civil  rule,  and  preparing  the  way  for  violent  revolution 
by  converting  the  Power,  which  is  set  up  in  human  societies  to 
mintain  law  and  order,  and  to  defend  innocence  and  punish  crime, 
into  the  grand  law-breaker  and  malefactor  of  the  country ;  the 
first  in  rank  among  oppressors,  the  deadly  enemy  of  freedom  and 
intelligence,  and  the  active  fomenter  and  instigator  of  the  vilest 
corruption  among  the  people. 

While  I  speak  thus  freely  and  strongly  of  the  acts  of  the  Nea- 
politan Government,  I  have  deliberately  refrained  (with  the  ex- 
ception of  certain  clear  cases)  from  any  attempt  to  point  out  the 
agents,  or  to  distribute  or  fix  the  responsibility.  Beyond  the 
limits  I  have  named  I  know  not,  and  have  not  the  desire  to  know, 
to  whom  it  belongs.  I  am  aware  that,  although  the  Sovereign  be 
the  effective  governor  of  the  country,  an  impenetrable  veil  may 
pass  between  his  eyes  and  the  actual  system  of  means  by  which 
this  main  department  of  his  Grovernment  is  worked ;  I  know  it  to 
be  the  belief  of  some  persons  that  this  is  actually  the  case ;  I 
must  add  that  I  am  acquainted  with  an  instance  of  a  direct  and 
unceremonious  appeal  to  the  King's  humanity,  which  met  with  a 
response  on  his  part  evidently  sincere  ;  although,  according  to 
the  latest  accounts  I  have  received,  his  intentions  have  as  yet 
been  thwarted  by  other  influences,  and  have  not  taken  practical 
effect. 

And  now,  my  dear  Lord,  I  conclude,  as  I  began,  with  express- 
ing my  gratitude  to  you  for  allowing  me  to  place  this  letter  in 
your  hands.  But  for  this  permission,  I  might  have  found  myself 
wholly  without  the  means  of  putting  any  such  engine  into  opera- 
tion as  would  offer  me  the  least  hope  of  quietly  producing  a  salu- 
tary effect  upon  the  proceedings  of  the  Neapolitan  Government. 
I  took  leave,  indeed,  of  Naples,  with  a  fixed  resolution  to  strain 
every  nerve  for  effecting  that  purpose,  and  for  effecting  it  with 
promptitude.  But  I  am  very  sensible  of  the  hazards  attending 
any  appeal  to  the  public  opinion  of  this  and  other  countries,  and 
how  such  an  appeal,  if  strong  enough  to  be  effective,  must  also 
be  so  strong  as  to  run  some  risk  of  quickening  the  action  of  the 


THE  NEAPOLITAN  GOVERNMEOT.  35 

elements  of  social  and  political  disorder.  I '  freely  own  that  my 
sense  of  the  actual  evils  pressing  upon  the  Neapolitan  people,  of 
the  other  and  opposite  evils  which  these  are  rapidly  engendering, 
and  of  the  obligations  arising  out  of  the  whole,  is  so  deep  and  so 
intense,  that  I  must,  but  for  the  expectation  of  some  prompt  and 
marked  signs  of  improvement,  to  be  brought  about  through  the 
channels  which  your  just  personal  weight  will,  as  I  trust,  open  for 
me,  have  at  once  encountered  the  hazards  of  publicity,  whatever 
they  might  be,  as  I  might  still,  in  contingencies  I  am  unwilling  to 
contemplate,  be  compelled  to  encounter  them. 

But  this  I  must  add.  Into  some  one  or  more  particulars  of  the 
statements  I  have  made,  error  of  form,  and  even  error  of  fact,  may 
have  crept.  I  am  prepared  for  the  possibility,  that  if  those  state- 
ments should  in  any  manner  r^ch  the  persons  whose  conduct 
they  principally  concern,  they  may  be  met  with  general  denial, 
and  that  denial  may  even  be  supported  and  accredited  with  some 
instance  or  instances  of  apparent,  nay,  possibly  of  real  confutation. 
I  now  state  that  I  cannot  and  shall  not  entail  upon  your  Lordship 
the  charge  of  handing  to  and  fro  replications  and  rejoinders.  I 
will  not  discuss  the  correctness  of  my  statements  with  those  who 
alone  are  likely  to  impugn  them,  because  I  cannot  do  it  upon  equal 
terms.  First,  inasmuch  as  in  Naples  secrecy  is  the  almost  uni- 
versal rule  of  the  proceedings  of  Government,  and  the  perfect 
servitude  of  the  press  cuts  off  the  means  of  sifting  controverted 
matter,  and  thus  the  ordinary  avenues  to  truth.  Secondly,  because 
my  entering  upon  such  details  would  infallibly  cause  unjust  sus- 
picion to  light  upon  individuals,  and  w^ould  thus  at  once  give  rise 
to  further  persecutions.  Thirdly,  and  even  most  of  all,  because  I 
am  so  entirely  certain  of  the  accuracy  of  my  statements  in  the 
general  picture  they  present,  and  the  general  results  to  which  they 
lead,  as  to  feel  that  they  are  beyond  bond  fide  dispute,  and  that  to 
engage  in  any  such  dispute  would  be  to  postpone,  perhaps  indefi- 
nitely, the  attainment  of  the  practical  ends  which  I  propose  to 
myself  the  hope  of  gaining.  I  have  the  less  scruple  in  attaching 
my  own  credit  to  them,  because  I  am  convinced  that  as  a  whole 
they  are  within  the  truth.  Not  in  one  word  or  syllable,  of  course, 
have  I  consciously  heightened  the  coloring  of  the  case  beyond  the 
facts  ;   I  have  omitted  much,  which  even  my  short  residence  in 


36  STATE  PROSECUTIONS,  ETC. 

Naples  forced  upon  my  knowledge ;  I  have  endeavored  to  avoid 
multiplicity  of  detail,  and  have  referred  particularly  to  the  case 
of  Poerio,  not  because  I  have  the  slightest  reason  to  believe  it  more 
cruel  or  wicked  than  others,  but  because  I  was  able  to  follow  it 
somewhat  better  through  its  particulars,  and  because  it  is  one 
which  will  more  readily  than  most  others  attract  interest  out  of 
his  own  country.  Crimine  ah  uno  disce  omnes.  It  is  time  that 
either  the  veil  should  be  lifted  from  scenes  fitter  for  hell  than 
earth,  or  some  considerable  mitigation  should  be  voluntarily 
adopted.  I  have  undertaken  this  wearisome  and  painful  task,  in 
the  hope  of  doing  something  to  diminish  a  mass  of  human  suffering 
as  huge,  I  believe,  and  as  acute,  to  say  the  least,  as  any  that  the 
eye  of  heaven  beholds.  This  may,  as  I  fondly  trust,  be  effected, 
through  your  Lordship's  aid,  on^the  one  hand  without  elusion  or 
delay,  on  the  other  without  the  mischiefs  and  inconveniences 
which  I  am  fully  sensible  might,  nay,  in  some  degree  must,  attend 
the  process,  were  I  thrown  back  on  my  own  unaided  resources. 
*      I  remain,  my  dear  Lord  Aberdeen, 

Most  sincerely  yours, 

W.  E.  GrLADSTONE. 

The  Earl  of  Aberdeen f  K.  T.,  Sfc.^  Sfc.^  Sfc. 


LETTER   11. 

&c.  &c. 


My  dear  Lord  Aberdeen, 

The  letter,  of  which  this  contains  the  sequel,  was  of  a  per- 
sonal and  private  nature  ;  and  was  addressed  to  you  with  the  ar- 
dent and  even  sanguine  hope,  that  it  need  never  have  to  bear  any 
other  character.  I  had  such  a  conviction  of  the  general  truth  and 
strength  of  the  statements  it  contained,  and  of  the  extreme  urgency 
of  the  case,  and  I  knew  so  well,  as  indeed  all  men  know,  the  just 
weight  attaching  to  your  Lordship's  name,  even  while  you  act  in 
a  personal  and  private  capacity  alone,  that  when  at  my  request 
you  consented  to  make  my  representations  known  in  those  quarters 
to  which  it  appeared  most  desirable  to  resort,  my  mind  was  dis- 
burdened of  a  heavy  weight,  and  I  cheerfully  anticipated  some 
such  practical  consequences  as,  even  if  small  in  themselves,  might, 
notwithstanding,  by  their  character,  have  encouraged  and  justified 
a  patient  waiting  for  more  considerable  results  from  farther  and 
more  mature  deliberation. 

It  w^as  in  itself  a  thing  so  reasonable,  that  private  representation 
and  remonstrance  should  in  the  first  instance  be  attempted,  that  I 
cannot  regret  the  course  that  was  taken,  though  it  entailed  the 
serious  delays  required  for  your  own  mature  consideration  of  the 
case,  and  for  making  it  known  in  those  other  spheres  to  which  I 
have  referred.  But  the  manner  in  which  it  had  been  received  in 
the  quarter  directly  affected  by  my  allegations,  had  entirely  con- 
vinced me  that  it  would  not  be  warrantable  to  trust  any  longer 
in  this  case  to  the  force  of  mere  expostulation,  before,  driven  from 
the  definite  hopes,  which  I  had  founded  upon  your  assistance,  I 
Committed  my  first  letter  to  the  press.  I  wish,  however,  to 
make  it  clearly  understood,  that  I  am  alone  responsible  for  that 
proceeding. 


38  STATE  PROSECUTIONS  OF 

I  have  felt  it,  then,  my  bouiiden  duty  to  remit  my  statements 
by  publication  to  the  bar  of  general  opinion — of  that  opinion  which 
circulates  throughout  Europe  with  a  facility  and  force  increasing 
from  year  to  year,  and  which,  however,  in  some  things  it  may  fall 
short  or  in  others  exceed,  is,  so  far  at  least,  impregnated  with  the 
spirit  of  the  Grospel,  that  its  accents  are  ever  favorable  to  the 
diminution  of  human  suffering. 

To  have  looked  for  any  modification  whatever  of  the  reactionary 
policy  of  a  government,  in  connection  with  a  moving  cause  so 
trivial  as  any  sentiments  or  experience  of  mine,  may  be  thought  pre- 
sumptuous or  chimerical.  What  claim,  it  may  be  asked,  had  I, 
one  among  thousands  of  mere  travellers,  upon  the  Neapolitan 
Government  ?  The  deliberations  which  fix  the  policy  of  States, 
especially  of  absolute  States,  must  be  presumed  to  have  been 
laborious  and  solid  in  some  proportion  to  their  immense,  their 
terrific  power  over  the  practical  destinies  of  mankind  ;  and  they 
ought  not  to  be  unsettled  at  a  moment's  notice  in  deference  to  the 
wishes  or  the  impressions  of  insignificant,  or  adversely  prepossessed, 
or  at  best  irresponsible  individuals. 

My  answer  is  short.  On  the  Government  of  Naples  I  had  no 
claim  whatever  ;  but  as  a  man  I  felt  and  knew  it'to  be  my  duty  to 
testify  to  what  I  had  credibly  heard,  or  personally  seen,  of  the 
needless  and  acute  sufferings  of  men.  Yet,  aware  that  such  testi- 
mony, when  once  launched,  is  liable  to  be  used  for  purposes 
neither  intended  nor  desired  by  those  who  bear  it,  and  that  in 
times  of  irritability  and  misgiving,  such  as  these  are  on  the  Con- 
tinent of  Europe,  slight  causes  may  occasionally  produce,  or 
may  tend  and  aid  to  produce,  effects  less  inconsiderable,  I  willingly 
postponed  any  public  appeal  until  the  case  should  have  been  seen 
in  private  by  those  whose  conduct  it  principally  touched.  It  has 
been  so  seen.  They  have  made  their  option  ;  and  while  I  reluc- 
tantly accept  the  consequences,  their  failing  to  meet  it  by  any 
practical  improvement  will  never  be  urged  by  me  as  constituting 
an  aggravation  of  their  previous  responsibilities. 

It  nnay,  again,  disappoint  some  persons  that  I  should  now 
simply  appear  in  my  personal  capacity  through  the  press,  instead 
of  inviting  to  this  grave  and  painful  question  the  attention  of  that 
House  of  Parliament  to  which  I  have  the  honor  to  belong.      To 


THE  NEAPOLITAN  GOVERNMENT.  39 

such  I  would  say,  that  I  have  advisedly  abstained  from  mixing  up 
my  statements  with  any  British  agencies  or  influences  which  are 
official,  diplomatic,  or  political.  I  might  indeed,  by  thus  asso- 
ciating them  with  the  interests  of  parties  or  individuals,  have  ob- 
tained for  them  an  increased  amount  of  favorable  attention ;  but 
I  might  on  the  other  hand  have  arrayed  against  my  representa- 
tions, and  against  what  I  believe  to  be  the  sacred  purposes  of 
humanity,  the  jealousies  of  those  connected  with  other  European 
States ;  and,  in  the  kingdom  of  the  two  Sicilies  itself,  those  laud- 
able sentiments  of  national  independence,  which  lie  at  the  root  of 
patriotism.  I  should  in  effect  have  caused,  if  not  made,  a  funda- 
mental misrepresentation  of  the  whole  case.  The  claims,  the 
interests  which  I  have  in  view  are  not  those  of  England.  Either 
they  are  wholly  null  and  valueless,  or  they  are  broad  as  the 
extension  of  the  human  race,  and  long-lived  as  its  duration.  It 
might,  indeed,  be  better  to  obtain  some  partial  redress  of  these 
grievances  through  the  political  influence  and  power  of  this  country, 
than  to  remain  wholly  without  it :  but  I  am  so  deeply  sensible  of 
the  evils  attendant,  under  the  circumstances  of  the  case,  upon  that 
mode  of  proceeding,  and  upon  its  tendency  to  multiply  the  number 
and  enhance  the  force  of  obstructive  and  even  counteracting 
causes,  that  I  deliberately  abstain  from  appealing  to  the  generous 
sympathies,  with  which  I  am  certain  the  British  Parliament  would 
meet  the  statement  of  such  a  case  ;  and  if  the  case  shall  penetrate 
within  those  precincts,  it  will  be  by  no  agency,  encouragement,  or 
assent  of  mine. 

Upon  reviewing  and  reconsidering  the  terms  of  the  letter  ad- 
dressed by  me  to  your  Lordship  on  the  7th  of  April,  I  find  in  them 
a  warmth  which  may  be  open  to  criticism,  but  which  then  ap- 
peared, and  still  appears,  to  me  to  be  generally  justified  by  the 
circumstances  of  the  case.  I  find  a  great  variety  of  allegations 
which  will  excite  horror  and  indignation  in  some,  incredulity  in 
others,  surprise  in  most :  but  which  few  will  pass  by  with  indif- 
ference. I  find  these  strong  statements  made  with  the  avowal  on 
my  part,  that  there  are  many  of  them  which  it  has  been  impossible 
for  me  to  verify  with  precision  in  their  detail ;  because  the  ordinary 
sources  of  information  are  closed;  because  statements  when  received 
cannot,  at  Naples,  be  subjected  to  the  test  of  free   discussion ; 


40  STATE  PROSECUTIONS  OF 

and  because  the  supposition  once  entertained  against  a  Neapolitan 
that  he  conveyed  to  any  one,  especially  to  an  Englishman  (perhaps 
I  might  add  especially,  even  as  among  Englishmen,  to  myself) 
ideas  or  intelligence  unfavorable  to  the  Grovernment,  would  have 
marked  him  out  as  the  object  of  the  spy,  and  the  victim  of  the 
informer.  I  stand  now,  as  I  stood  then,  upon  the  convictian  that 
my  general  representation  is  not  too  highly  charged  ;  upoa  the 
consciousness  that  I  have  done  all  that  could  be  done  to  attain  to 
accuracy  in  detail ;  upon  the  fact  that  perhaps  the  most  disgrace- 
ful circumstances  are  those  which  rest  upon  public  notoriety,  or 
upon  my  own  personal  knowledge ;  and  upon  the  assurance  I  have 
too  good  reason  to  entertain,  that  any  attempt  on  my  part  to  con- 
fer habitually  with  Neapolitan  subjects,  or  to  conduct  any  regular 
search  for  information  through  their  means,  or  any  indication, 
direct  or  indirect,  of  any  individuals  among  them  as  the  sources 
from  which  I  have  derived  my  knowledge  and  impressions,  would 
be  fatal  to  their  personal  liberty  and  happiness. 

But  I  do  not  stand  upon  these  grounds  alone.  My  assurance 
of  the  general  truth  of  my  representations  has  been  heightened, 
my  fears  of  any  material  error  in  detail  have  been  diminished, 
since  the  date  of  my  first  letter,  by  the  negative  but  powerful 
evidence  of  the  manner  in  which  they  have  been  met.  Writing  in 
July,  I  have  as  yet  no  qualification  worth  naming  to  append  to  the 
allegations  which  I  first  put  into  shape  in  April.  I  am  indeed 
aware,  that  my  opinion  with  respect  to  the  number  of  political 
prisoners  in  the  kingdom  of  the  Two  Sicilies  has  been  met  by  an 
assertion,  purporting  to  be  founded  on  returns,  that  instead  of 
twenty  thousand  they  are  about  two  thousand.  Even  this  number 
has  not  always  been  admitted  ;  for  I  recollect  that  in  November 
last  they  were  stated  to  me,  by  an  Englishman  of  high  honor  and 
in  close  communication  with  the  Court,  to  be  less  than  one  thou- 
sand. I  have  carefully  pointed  out,  that  my  statement  is  one 
founded  on  opinion  :  on  reasonable  opinion  as  I  think,  bnt  upon 
opinion  still.  Let  the  Neapolitan  Government  have  the  full 
benefit  of  the  contradiction  I  have  mentioned.  To  me  it  would  be 
a  great  relief,  if  I  could  honestly  say  it  at  once  commanded  my 
credence.  The  readers  of  my  letters  will  not  be  surprised  at  my 
hesitation  to  admit  it.     But  this  I  would  add  :  the  mere  number 


THE  NEAPOLITAN  GOVERNMENT.  41 

of  political  prisoners  is  in  my  view,  like  the  state  of  the  prisons,  in 
itself,  a  secondary  feature  of  the  case.  If  they  are  fairly  and 
legally  arrested,  fairly  and  legally  treated  before  trial,  fairly  and 
legally  tried,  that  is  the  main  matter.  Where  fairness  and  legality 
preside  over  the  proceedings,  we  need  have  no  great  fear  about 
an  undue  number  of  prisoners.  But  my  main  charges  go  to  show 
that  there  is  gross  illegality  and  gross  unfairness  in  the  proceed- 
ings ;  and  it  is  only  in  connection  with  the  proof  of  this,  that  the 
number  of  prisoners  and  the  state  of  the  prisons  come  to  be  mat- 
ters of  such  importance. 

It  will  have  been  remarked  in  my  former  letter  that  I  have 
spoken  of  what  I  myself  saw  in  the  Neapolitan  prisons,  and  even 
in  a  few  cases  of  what  I  heard  from  prisoners.  I  think  it,  neces- 
sary to  state  the  motive  which  led  me  to  seek  entrance  there.  It 
was  not  an  idle  curiosity,  but  an  impression  of  the  duty  incumbent 
upon  me  to  be  an  eye-witness,  so  far  as  was  in  my  power,  to  the 
facts,  before  deciding  upon  any  ulterior  step.  It  is  likewise  a 
sacred  obligation  that  I  should  state  that  those  unfortunate  persons 
are  in  no  sense  or  degree  responsible  for  my  having  visited  their 
melancholy  abodes,  nor  were  they  in  any  manner  privy  or  aux- 
iliary to  it,  or  to  anything  I  have  said  or  done,  before  or  subse- 
quently. If  they  have  since  been  subjected,  as  has  been  reported 
to  me,  to  an  increase  of  suffering  and  hardship,  that  increase  can 
derive  no  justification  from  any  such  act  or  knowledge  of  theirs. 
It  is  right  too  for  me  to  add  that  when  I  refer  to  their  views  or 
statements  concerning  the  trials,  I  simply  quote  fronn  printed, 
records  which  I  obtained  without  their  aid  or  knowledge.  If  a 
measure  taken  by  me  simply  and  solely  to  get  at  the  truth,  by  the 
only  means  which  were  open  to  rnc,  should  have  resulted  in  the 
aggravation  of  the  condition  of  innocent  men,  it  does  but  afford 
another  proof  of  the  miserable  tendency  of  tyranny,  like  every 
other  evil,  to  multiply  and  reproduce  itself.  We  call  necessity  the 
tyrant's  plea,  and  such  it  is ;  but  it  is  not  a  plea  only,  it  is  a 
reason  :  it  is  a  hard  and  cruel  task-mistress  ;  and  the  wilful  abuse 
of  our  high  faculty  of  choice  for  the  purposes  of  evil,  soon  brings 
about  a  state  of  things  in  which  common  violation  is  well  nigh 
superseded,  and  a  resolution  almost  heroic  is  required  to  arrest  the 
fatal  course. 


42  STATE  PROSECUTIONS  OF 

I  do  not  intend  to  add  to  the  statements  of  fact  contained  in 
my  last  letter,  though  they  are  but  a  portion,  and  not  always  the 
most  striking  portion,  of  those  which  I  might  have  produced.  One 
reason  of  this  is,  that  they  are,  as  I  think,  sufficient  for  their 
purpose ;  and  another,  that  by  a  different  course  I  should  probably 
put  in  jeopardy,  not  indeed  the  persons  who  made  them  to  me, 
but  those  whom  the  agents  of  the  police  might  suppose,  or  might 
find  it  convenient  to  pretend  that  they  supposed,  to  have  so  made 
them. 

My  chief  purpose  at  present  is,  to  sustain  the  general  probabili-- 
ty  of  my  statements,  by  a  reference  to  unquestionable  facts,  which 
have  occured  both  in  other  parts  of  Italy  and  in  Naples   itself ; 
facts  such  as  exhibit  a  state  of  things  to  us  most  difficult  to  believe 
or  even  to  apprehend,  but  there,  alas !  too  familiar  and  too  true. 

That  my  statements  should  be  received  in  the  first  instance 
with  incredulity,  can  cause  me  no  dissatisfaction.  Nay,  more  :  I 
think  that,  for  the  honor  of  human  nature,  statements  of  such  a 
kind  ought  to  be  so  received.  Men  ought  to  be  slow  to  believe  that 
such  things  can  happen,  and  happen  in  a  Christian  country,  the 
seat  of  almost  the  oldest  European  civilization.  They  ought  to 
be  disposed  rather  to  set  down  my  assertions  to  fanaticism  or  folly 
on  my  part,  than  to  believe  them  as  an  over  true  tale  of  the  actual 
proceedings  of  a  settled  government.  But  though  they  ought  to 
be  thus  disposed  at  the  outset,  they  will  not,  I  trust,  bar  their 
minds  to  the  entrance  of  the  light,  however  painful  be  the  objects 
it  may  disclose.  I  have  myself  felt  that  incredulity,  and  wish  I 
could  have  felt  it  still  ;  but  it  has  yielded  to  conviction  step  by 
step,  and  with  fresh  pain  at  every  fresh  access  of  evidence.  I  pro- 
ceed accordingly  to  bring  the  reader's  mind,  so  far  as  I  am  able, 
under  the  process  through  which  my  own  has  passed,  and  to 
state  some  characteristic  facts,  which  may  convey  more  faithfully 
than  abstract  description  an  idea  of  the  political  atmosphere  of 
Italy. 

For  example,  I  have  within  the  last  few  lines  spoken  of  the 
Neapolitan  police  in  such  a  manner  as  I  should  be  sorry  to  apply 
in  most  countries  to  those  classes  which  a  police,  according  to  our 
notions,  is  appointed  specially  to  coerce.  Among  ourselves  the 
police  constable  is,  as  such,  the  object  of  general  respect ;  tradi- 


THE  NEAPOLITAN  GOVERNMENT.  43 

tion  suggests,  and  the  conduct  of  the  body  confirms,  this  feeling; 
nor  have  we  at  present  a  word  in  use  to  describe  the  character, 
which  conveys  any  unfavorable  idea.  But  in  the  Italian  tongue 
he  is  a  sbirro  or  a  sg'herro,  words  which  carry  the  united  idea  of 
degradation  in  the  person  described,  and  loathing  in  those  who 
utter  them  :  words,  too,  which  it  is  impossible  to  render  perfectly 
into  English.  And  now,  having  spoken  of  the  way  in  which  others 
think  of  them,  let  us  give  a  specimen  of  the  maimer  in  which  the 
Italian  police  officer  estimates  himself.  I  take  my  example  from 
Lombardy ;  yet  I  am  very  far  from  implying  that  the  police  of 
that  country  has  sunk  to  the  level  of  the  corresponding  class  in 
Naples. 

There  was  lately  a  well-known  officer  of  police  in  Milan,  named 
Bolza.  In  the  time  of  the  Revolution  of  1848  the  private  notes 
of  the  Government  on  the  character  of  its  agents  were  discovered. 
Bolza  is  there  described  as  a  person  harsh,  insincere,  anything 
but  respectable,  venal,  a  fanatical  Napoleonist  until  1815,  then  an 
Austrian  partizan  of  equal  heat,  "  and  to-morrow  a  Turk,  were 
Soliman  to  enter  upon  these  States  ; "  capable  of  anything  for 
money's  sake  against  either  friend  or  foe.  Still,  as  the  memoran- 
dum continues,  '^  he  understands  his  business,  and  is  right  good 
at  it.  Nothing  is  known  of  his  morals  or  of  his  religion."  But 
a  work  published  at  Lugano  contains  his  last  will,  and  this  curi- 
ous document  testifies  to  the  acute  sense  which  even  such  a  man 
retained  of  his  own  degradation.  **  I  absolutely  forbid  my  heirs," 
he  says,  "  to  allow  any  mark,  of  whatever  kind,  to  be  placed  over 
the  spot  where  I  shall  be  interred :  much  more  any  inscription  or 
epitaph.  I  recommend  my  dearly  beloved  wife  to  impress  upon 
my  children  the  maxim  that,  when  they  shall  be  in  a  condition  to 
solicit  an  employment  from  the  generosity  of  the  Grovernment, 
they  are  to  ask  for  it  elsewhere  than  in  the  department  of  the  ex- 
ecutive police :  and  not,  unless  under  extraordinary  circum- 
stances, to  give  her  consent  to  the  marriage  of  any  of  my  daugh- 
ters with  a  member  of  that  service."'^ 

I  shall  next  name  two  facts  which  are  related  by  Farini,  the 
recent   and  esteemed  writer  of   a  History  of  the  States  of  the 

J  *  Gualterio,  Gli  ultimi  Rivolgimenti  Italiano,  vol  i.  p.  431,  note. 


44  STATE  PROSECUTIONS  OF 

Church  since  1815  : — "  There  exists  a  confidential  circular  of  Car- 
dinal Bernetti,  in  which  he  orders  the  Judges,  in  the  case  of  Libe- 
rals charged  with  ordinary  offences  or  crimes,  invariably  to  inflict 
the  highest  degree  of  punishment. "=^ 

Bernetti  was  not  an  Austrian  partizan  :  it  is  alleged  that  he 
was  supplanted  (early  in  the  reign  of  Grregory  XVI.)  through 
Austrian  influence.  His  favorite  idea  was  the  entire  independ- 
ence of  the  Pontifical  State  ;  and  therefore  the  circular  to  which  I 
have  referred  is  purely  Italian. 

This  was  under  Grregory  XVI.  Under  Leo  XII.,  Cardinal 
Rivarola  went  as  legate  fl^  latere  into  Romagna.  On  the  31st  of 
August,  1825,  he  pronounced  sentence  on  five  hundred  and  eight 
persons.  Seven  of  these  w^ere  to  suffer  death.  Forty-nine  were 
to  undergo  hard  labor  for  terms  varying  between  ten  years  and 
life.  Fifty-two  were  to  be  imprisoned  for  similar  terms.  These 
sentences  were  pronounced  privately,  at  the  simple  will  of  the 
Cardinal,  upon  mere  presumptions  that  the  parties  belonged  to  the 
liberal  sects ;  and,  what  is  to  the  ear  of  an  Englishman  the  most 
astounding  lact  of  all,  after  a  process  simply  analagous  to  that  of 
a  Grand  Jury  (I  compare  the  process,  not  the  persons),  and  with- 
out any  opportunity  given  to  the  accused  for  defence  !  t 

I  may  add  a  reference  to  an  edict  published  by  the  Duke  of 
Modena  on  the  18th  of  April,  1832.  This  edict  ordains  that  poli- 
tical prisoners  may  be  sentenced  to  any  punishment  materially  less 
than  that  provided  by  law  upon  proof  of  the  offence,  without  any 
trial  or  form  of  proceeding  whatever,  in  cases  where  it  has  been 
agreed  not  to  disclose  the  names  of  the  witnesses,  or  not  to  make 
known  the  purport  of  their  evidence.  With  these  reduced  punish- 
ments exile  was  to  be  ordinarily  combined  :  and  fines,  as  well  as 
other  appendages,  might  be  added  at  discretion  !  The  edict  may 
be  seen  in  the  notorious  newspaper  called  La  Voce  delta  Vcrita, 
No.  110. 

Having  now  recited  a  few  circumstances  illustrative  of  the 
machinery  by  which,  and  of  the  principles  on  which,  an  Italian 
Government  has  sometimes  been  conducted,  I  proceed  to  set  forth 


*  Farini,  Lo  Stato  Romano,  vol.  1.  p.  77,  book  i.  chap,  v.,  note. 
f  Ibid ,  cbap.  iL 


THE  NEAPOLITAN  GOVERNMENT.  45 

some  material  points  connected  with  the  political  position  of  the 
present  (xovernment  of  Naples.  In  my  first  letter,  while  express- 
ing an  anxiety  to  avoid  the  discussion  of  the  subject,  I  likewise 
intimated  that  some  reference  to  it  was  necessary,  in  order  to 
make  the  present  policy  comprehensible.  Nemo  repente  fuit  tur- 
pissimus  ;  and  no  such  extremities  of  fear,  cruelty,  and  baseness 
as  it  has  been  my  irksome  duty  to  describe,  could  be  reached  by 
any  G-overnment  but  one  already  unmanned  by  a  bad  conscience, 
and  driven  on  by  necessity  to  cover  old  misdeeds  by  heaping  new 
ones  on  them. 

In  the  month  of  January,  1848,  a  Constitution  w^as  granted  to 
the  kingdom  of  Naples.  It  was  proclaimed  and  sworn  to  by  the 
monarch  amidst  every  circumstance  of  solemnity,  and  the  univer- 
sal joy  of  the  people.  Liberatore,  one  of  the  Jesuits  of  Naples,  in 
a  sermon  delivered  on  the  15th  of  April,  1848,  says :  "  The  sovereign 
has  shown  himself  neither  obstinately  tenacious,  nor  precipitately 
pliable.  He  procrastinated,  nay,  repelled,  until  it  was  demon- 
strated, that  the  demand  proceeded  from  the  universal  desire  of  a 
people,  and  not  from  the  isolated  assumptions  of  a  party :  he  deigned 
to  accede  with  joy,  when  it  was  still  in  his  power  to  resist ;.  thus 
it  plainly  appeared,  that  he  took  the  step  not  through  violence  or 
from  apprehension,  but  of  his  own  free  and  sagacious  will."* 

On  the  15th  of  May  came  the  struggle,  of  which  the  origin  is 
described  in  the  most  opposite  colors  by  persons  of  opposite  senti- 
ments. It  ended,  however,  in  the  unquestionable  and  complete 
victory  of  the  King  and  the  troops  :  and  I  will  now  quote  the 
words  in  which  the  triumphant  monarch  reiterates  his  assurances 
in  regard  to  the  Constitution  : 

**  Neapolitans  ! 

"  Profoundly  afflicted  by  the  horrible  calamity  of  the  15th  of 
May,  Our  most  lively  desire  is  to  mitigate,  as  far  as  possible,  its 
consequences.  It  is  Our  most  fixed  and  irrevocable  will  to  main- 
tain the  Constitution  of  the  10th  of  P'ebruary,  pure  and  free  from 
the  stain  of  all  excess.     As  it  is  the  only  one  compatible  with  the 


*  Napoli  e  la  Constituzione,  Stamperia  del  Fibreno,  Strada  Trinita  Maggiore,  No.  26, 
1848. 


46  STATE  PROSECUTIONS  OF 

true  and  immediate  wants  of  this  portion  of  Italy,  so  it  will  be  the 
sacrosanct  altar,  upon  which  must  rest  the  destinies  of  Our  most 
beloved  people  and  of  Our  crown. 

"  Resume,  then,  all  your  customary  occupations  :  confide  with 
the  utmost  fulness  of  your  hearts  in  Our  good  faith,  in  Our  sense 
of  religion,  and  in  Our  sacred  and  spontaneous  oath."* 

I  now  proceed  to  give  extracts  from  this  Constitution.  It 
opens  thus  ;  and  I  request  particular  attention  to  its  very  solemn 
preamble  : 

''  With  reference  to  Our  Sovereign  Act  of  the  29th  of  January, 
1848,  by  which,  concurring  with  the  unanimous  desire  of  Our 
most  beloved  subjects.  We  have  promised,  of  Our  own  full,  free, 
and  spontaneous  will,  to  establish  in  this  Kingdom  a  Constitution, 
conformable  to  the  civilization  of  the  times,  whereof  we  then 
indicated,  by  a  few  rapid  strokes,  the  fundamental  bases,  and 
reserved  our  ratification  of  it  till  it  should  be  set  out  and  arranged 
in  its  principles,  according  to  the  draft  which  Our  present  Ministry 
of  State  was  to  submit  to  Us  within  ten  days'  time ; 

"  Determined  to  give  immediate  effect  to  this  fixed  resolution 
of  Our  mind ; 

''  In  the  awful  Name  of  the  Most  Holy  and  Almighty  God,  the 
Trinity  in  Unity,  to  whom  alone  it  appertains  to  read  the  depths 
of  the  heart,  and  whom  We  loudly  invoke  as  the  judge  of  the 
simplicity  of  our  intentions,  and  of  the  unreserved  sincerity  with 
which  We  have  determined  to  enter  upon  the  paths  of  the  new 
political  order  ; 

"  Having  heard,  with  mature  deliberation.  Our  Council  of  State; 

"  We  have  decided  upon  proclaiming,  and  we  do  proclaim,  as 
irrevocably  ratified  by  Us,  the  following  Constitution." 

Then  follow  the  particular  provisions,  of  which  I  need  only 
cite  four  for  the  present  purpose : 

"Art.  I.  The  kingdom  of  the  Two  Sicilies  shall  be  from  hence- 
forward subject  to  a  limited,  hereditary,  constitutional  monarchy, 
under  representative  forms. 

*  Farini,  book  iii.,  chap,  viii 


THE  NEAPOLITAN  GOVERNMENT.  47 

"  Art.  ly.  The  legislative  power  resides  jointly  in  the  King, 
and  in  a  National  Parliament,  consisting  of  two  Chambers,  the 
one  of  Peers,  the  other  of  Deputies. 

"  Art.  XIV.  No  description  of  impost  can  be  decreed,  except 
in  virtue  of  a  law  :  communal  imposts  included. 

"  Art.  XXIV.  Personal  liberty  is  guaranteed.  No  one  can  be 
arrested,  except  in  virtue  of  an  instrument  proceeding  in  due 
form  of  law  from  the  proper  authority  ;  the  case  of  flagrancy,  or" 
quasi-fiagrancy,  excepted.  In  the  case  of  arrest  by  way  of  pre- 
vention, the  accused  must  be  handed  over  to  the  proper  authority 
within  the  term  at  farthest  of  twenty-four  hours,  within  which 
also  the  grounds  of  his  arrest  must  be  declared  to  him."  ^ 

Those  who  wish  for  detail  may  consult  the  histories  of  these 
events  ;  t  I  shall  only  sketch  the  actual  state  of  things. 

In  regard  to  Article  I.  ;  the  monarchy  of  Naples  is  perfectly 
absolute  and  unlimited. 

In  regard  to  Article  IV.  ;  there  exists  no  Chamber  of  Peers  or 
Chamber  of  Deputies. 

In  regard  to  Article  XIV. ;  all  the  taxes  are  imposed  and 
levied  under  royal  authority  alone. 

In  regard  to  Article  XXIV.  ;  persons  were  arrested  by  the 
hundred,  while  I  was  in  Naples,  a  little  before  last  Christmas, 
without  any  legal  warrant  whatever,  and  without  the  slightest 
pretext  of  flagrancy  or  quasi-flagrancy  :  they  were  not  handed 
over  to  the  competent  authority  within  twenty- four  hours,  or  even 
at  all,  and  were  detained  in  the  most  rigorous  confinement  by  the 
police,  without  any  reference  whatever  to  the  Courts,  and  without 
any  communication  to  them  whatever  of  the  grounds  of  their 
arrest. 

Such  is  the  state  of  facts  in  respect  to  the  origin  of  the 
Neapolitan  Constitution,  to  its  terms,  and  to  the  present  actual 
conduct  of  the  Grovernment  of  the  country,  in  contradiction  and 
in  defiance,  at  every  point,  of  its  indisputable  fundamental  law. 

It  will  be  too  clearly  seen  how  such  a  relation  between  the  law 

*  La  Costituzione  politica  del  Regno  di  Napoli,  presso  Gaetano  Nobile,  Strada  Toledo, 
No.  166,  1849. 

f  Such  asMassari's  Casi  di  Napoli,  Torino,  1849.    Massari  is  an  ex-deputy. 


48  STATE  PROSECUTIONS  OF 

of  a  country  and  the  acts — not  the  occasional,  but  the  constant 
and  most  essential  acts  of  its  Government — throw  light  upon  the 
distressing,  and  at  first  sight  scarcely  credible,  allegations  of  my 
first  letter. 

But  I  have  yet  another  source  of  evidence  which  I  am  bound 
to  open  :  one  which  illustrates  in  a  form  the  most  painful  and  re- 
volting, the  completeness,  the  continuity,  the  perfect  organization 
of  the  system  which  I  have  thought  it  my  duty  to  endeavor, 
according  to  my  limited  ability,  to  expose  and  to  denounce. 

I  need  hardly  observe,  that  in  the  kingdom,  of  Naples  both  the 
press,  and  the  education  of  the  people,  are  under  the  control  of 
the  Government :  and  that,  setting  aside  the  question  how  far 
points  of  conflicting  interest  with  the  Church  may  be  an  excep- 
tion, nothing  is  taught  or  printed  there,  unless  with  its  sanction, 
and  according  to  its  mind. 

I  am  going  to  refer  to  and  quote  from  a  work,  one  of  the  most 
singular  and  detestable  that  I  have  ever  seen.  It  is  called  the 
Catechismo  Filosofico^  per  uso  delle  Scuole  Inferiori :  and  the 
motto  is,  ^  Videte  ?ie  quis  vos  decipiat  per  philosophiam.''  I 
have  two  editions  of  of  it ;  one  bearing  as  follows  :  Napoli  pres- 
so  Raffaele  Miranda.  Largo  delle  Pigne,  No.  60.  1850.  The 
other  is  part  of  a  series  called  ^  Collezione  di  huoni  Libri  a 
favore  della  Verita  e  della  Virtu.  Napoli^  Stabilimento  Tipo- 
grafico  di  A.  Fester,  Strada  Carbonara,  No.  104.  1850.  I  am 
thus  particular,  because  I  feel  that  if  I  were  not  so,  I  might  now 
once  more  raise  the  smile  of  a  not  irrational  incredulity. 

The  doctrine  of  the  first  chapter  is,  that  a  true  philosophy 
must  nowadays  be  taught  to  the  young,  in  order  to  counteract  the 
false  philosophy  of  the  liberals,  which  is  taught  by  certain  vicious 
and  bad  men,  desirous  to  make  others  vicious  and  bad  like  them- 
selves. The  notes  of  these  liberal  philosophers  are  then  enume- 
rated :  and  one  of  them  is  "disapproval  of  the  vigorous  acts  of 
the  legitimate  authorities."  They  produce,  it  is  taught,  all  man- 
ner of  evils,  especially  the  eternal  damnation  of  souls.  The 
pupil  then  asks  with  great  simplicity  of  his  teacher,  not  whether 
all  liberals  arc  wicked,  but  "  whether  they  are  all  wicked  in  one 
and  the  same  fashion  ?  "     And  the  answer  is — 

**  Not  all,   my   child,  because    some  are  thorough-paced    and 


THE  NEAPOLITAN  GOVERNMENT.  49 

wil  ful  deceivers,  while  others  are  piteously  deceived :  but  not- 
withstanding, they  are  all  travelling  the  same  road  :  and  if  they 
do  not  alter  their  course,  they  will  all  arrive  at  the  same  goal." 

The  plain  meaning,  as  I  read  it  is,  that  those  who  hold  what 
in  Naples  are  called  liberal  opinions  (and  many  who  are  included 
in  the  name  there,  would  not  be  so  designated  here),  even  in  the 
more  innocent  form  of  the  mere  victims  of  deceit,  will,  unless  they 
abandon  them,  be  lost  eternally  on  account  of  those  opinions. 

The  next  question  of  the  scholar  is,  whether  all  who  wear 
moustaches  or  a  beard  are  liberal  philosophers  ! 

In  subsequent  chapters  the  scholar  is  instructed  in  the  true 
nature  of  Sovereign  power.  The  author  plainly  denies  all  obliga- 
tion to  obey  the  Jaws  in  a  democracy  :  for  he  says  it  would  be 
essentially  absurd,  that  the  governing  power  should  reside  in  the 
governed  ;  and  therefore  God  would  never  give  it  them.  In  the 
United  States,  accordingly,  there  would  be  no  Sovereign  power. 
Thus  is  the  most  revolutionary  and  anarchical  doctrine  propagated 
under  the  pretexts  of  loyalty  and  religion. 

The  Sovereign  power,  we  are  here  taught,  is  not  only  Divine 
(which  I  shall  never  quarrel  with  an  author  for  asserting),  but 
unlimited  :  and  not  only  unlimited  in  fact,  but  unlimited  from  its 
own  nature  and  by  reason  of  its  Divine  origin.  And  now  we 
come  near  the  gist  of  the  whole  book,  for  the  sake  of  which  it  is 
that  Philosophy  has  been  brought  down  by  the  Neapolitan  sages 
from  high  heaven  to  the  level  of  "  inferior  schools."  This  power 
of  course,  cannot  be  limited  by  the  people,  for  their  duty  is  simply 
to  obey  it : — 

"  Scholar, — Can  the  people  of  itself  establish  fundamental 
laws  in  a  State  ? 

''^Master. — No:  because  a  Constitution,  or  fundamental  laws, 
are  of  necessity  a  limitation  of  the  Sovereignty :  and  this  can 
never  receive  any  measure  or  boundary  except  by  its  own  act : 
otherwise  it  would  no  longer  constitute  that  highest  and  para- 
mount power,  ordained  of  God  for  the  well-being  of  society."* 

And  now  I  shall  continue  to  translate  :  the  whole  matter  will 
repay  perusal,  and  it  will  be  seen  that  the  express  and  not  mis- 

*  Chap.  vii. 


50  STATE  PROSECUTIONS  OF 

takeable  features  of  the  Neapolitan  case  are  carefully  described 
and  fully  met  in  the  abominable  doctrines  here  inculcated  i — 

"  S. — If  the  people,  in  the  very  act  of  electing  a  Sovereign, 
shall  have  imposed  upon  him  certain  conditions  and  certain  reserva- 
tions, will  not  these  r-eservations  and  these  conditions  form  the 
Constitution  and  the  fundamental  law  of  the  State  ? 

"  M. — They  will,  provided  the  Sovereign  shall  have  granted 
and  ratified  them  freely.  Otherwise  they  will  not  ;  because  the 
people,  which  is  made  for  submission  and  not  for  command,  cannot 
impose  a  law  upon  the  Sovereignty,  ^ which  derives  its  power  not 
from  them,  but  from  God. 

"  S. — Suppose  that  a  Prince,  in  assuming  the  Sovereignty  of  a 
State,  has  accepted  and  ratified  the  Constitution,  or  fundamental 
law,  of  that  State ;  and  that  he  has  promised  or  sworn  to 
observe  it ;  is  he  bound  to  keep  that  promise,  and  to  maintain 
that  Constitution  and  that  law  ? 

"  M. — He  is  bound  to  keep  it,  provided  it  does  not  overthrow 
the  foundations  of  Sovereignty  :  and  provided  it  is  not  opposed  to  tke 
general  interests  of  the  State. 

"iS. — Why  do  you  consider,  that  a  Prince  is  not  bound  to  observe 
the  Constitution,  whenever  this  impugns  the  rights  of  Sovereignty  ? 

"  M. — We  have  already  found,  that  the  Sovereignty  is  the  high- 
est and  supreme  power,  ordained  and  constituted  by  God  in  society, 
for  the  good  of  society  ;  and  this  power,  conceded  and  made  need- 
ful by  God,  must  be  preserved  inviolate  and  entire  ;  and  cannot  be, 
restrained  or  abated  by  man,  without  coming  into  conflict  with  the 
ordinances  of  nature,  and  with  the  Divine  Will.  Whenever, 
therefore,  the  people  may  have  proposed  a  condition  which  im- 
pairs the  Sovereignty,  and  whenever  the  Prince  may  have  pro- 
mised to  observe  it,  that  proposal  is  an  absurdity,  that  promise  is 
null ;  and  the  Prince  is  not  bound  to  maintain  a  Constitution 
which  is  in  opposition  to  the  Divine  command,  but  is  bound  to 
maintain  entire  and  intact  the  supreme  power  established  by  God, 
and  by  God  conferred  on  him. 

"  S. — And  why  do  you  consider  that  the  Prince  is  not  bound  to 
maintain  the  Constitution,  when  he  finds  it  to  be  contrary  to  the 
interests  of  the  State  ? 

"ilf. — God  has  appointed  the  supreme  power  for  the  good  of 


THE  NEAPOLITAN  GOVERNMENT.  51 

society.  The  first  duty,  then,  of  the  person  who  may  have  been 
invested  with  it,  is  the  duty  of  promoting  the  good  of  society.  If 
the  fundamental  law  of  the  State  be  found  adverse  to  the  good  of 
the  State,  and  if  the  promise  given  by  the  Sovereign  to  observe 
that  fundamental  law  would  oblige  him  to  promote  what  is  detri- 
mental to  the  State,  that  law  becomes  null,  that  promise  void : 
because  the  general  good  is  the  object  of  all  laws,  and  to  promote 
that  good  is  the  main  obligation  of  Sovereignity.  Suppose  a  phy- 
sician to  have  promised,  and  sworn,  to  his  patient,  that  he  would 
bleed  him  ;  should  he  become  aware  that  such  letting  blood  would 
be  fatal,  he  is  bound  to  abstain  from  doing  it :  because,  paramount 
to  all  promises  and  oaths,  there  is  the  obligation  of  the  physician 
to  labor  for  the  cure  of  his  patient.  In  like  manner,  should  the 
Sovereign  find  that  the  fundamental  law  is  seriously  hurtful  to  his 
people,  he  is  bound  to  cancel  it ;  because  in  spite  of  all  promises 
and  all  constitutions,  the  duty  of  the  Sovereign  is  his  people's  weal. 
In  a  word,  an  oath  never  can  become  an  obligation  to  commit 
evil ;  and  therefore  cannot  bind  a  Sovereign  to  do  what  is  injuri- 
ous to  his  subjects.  Besides,  the  Head  of  the  Church  has  author- 
ity from  God  to  release  consciences  from  oaths,  when  he  judges 
that  there  is  suitable  cause  for  it." 

And  now  comes  the  keystone  of  the  arch,  which  makes  the 
whole  fabric  consistent  and  complete,  with  all  the  consistency  and 
the  completeness  that  can  belong  to  fraud,  falsehood,  injustice, 
and  impiety : — 

"  Scholar. — Whose  business  is  it  to  decide  when  the  Constitu- 
tion impairs  the  rights  of  Sovereignty,  and  is  adverse  to  the  wel- 
fare of  the  people  ? 

"  Master. — It  is  the  business  of  the  Sovereign ;  because  in  him 
resides  the  high  and  paramount  power,  established  by  God  in  the 
State,  with  a  view  to  its  good  order  and  felicity. 

"  jS. — May  there  not  be  some  danger,  that  the  Sovereign  may 
violate  the  Constitution  without  just  cause,  under  the  illusion  of 
error,  or  the  impulse  of  passion  ? 

"  M. — Errors  and  passions  are  the  maladies  of  the  human  race : 
but  the  bles.sings  of  health  ought  not  to  be  refused  through  the 
fear  of  sickness  ?  " 

And  so  forth.     I  will  not  go  through  all  the  false,  base,  and 


SZ  STATE  PROSECUTIONS  OF 

demoralizing  doctrines,  sometimes  ludicrous,  but  oftener  horrible, 
that  I  find  studiously  veiled  under  the  phrases  of  religion  in  this 
abominable  book :  because  I  do  not  desire  to  produce  merely  a 
general  stir  and  indignation  in  the  mind,  but  with  the  indignation 
a  clear  and  distinct,  and  so  far  as  may  be,  a  dispassionate  view,  of 
that  object  which  is  its  moving  cause.  I  say,  then,  that  here  we 
have  a  complete  systematized  philosophy  of  perjury  for  monarchs, 
exactly  adapted  to  the  actual  facts  of  Neapolitan  history  during 
the  last  three  and  a  half  years,  published  under  the  sanction,  and 
inculcated  by  the  authority,  of  a  Government,  which  has  indeed 
the  best  possible  title  to  proclaim  the  precept,  since  it  has  shown 
itself  a  master  in  the  practice. 

This  Catechism  bears  no  name :  but  it  is  described  to  me  as  the 
work  of  an  ecclesiastic  whom  I  forbear  to  designate,  since  pointing 
him  out  is  not  necessary  for  my  purpose  :  suffice  it  to  say,  he  is, 
or  was,  at  the  head  of  the  Commission  of  Public  Instruction.  He 
dedicates  his  production  "  to  the  Sovereigns,  the  Bishops,  the 
Magistracy,  the  teachers  of  youth,  and  all  the  well-disposed."  In 
this  dedicatory  Address,  he  announces  that  the  Sovereign  authority 
will  enjoin,  that  the  elements  of  civil  and  political  philosophy  be 
taught  in  all  the  schools  :  and  be  taught,  too,  from  this  one  single 
book,  lest  the  purity  of  the  doctrine  should  otherwise  be  corrupted : 
that  the  teachers  are  to  be  closely  watched,  lest  they  should  neg- 
lect this  duty,  and  that  none  of  them  are  to  have  the  annual  renewal 
of  their  office,  except  upon  proof  of  having  observed  it,  that  so 
"  this  book  may  be  multiplied  in  a  thousand  shapes,  and  may  cir- 
culate in  the  hands  of  all,  and  the  Catechism  of  the  philosopher 
may  become  the  personal  accomplishment  of  all  the  young,  and 
may  invariably  follow  close  upon  the  Catechism  of  the  Christian." 

Of  course,  peculiar  care  is  to  be  taken  that  no  one  shall  make 
his  way  into  holy  orders  without  having  imbibed  this  necessary 
knowledge. 

"  The  Bishops  will  find  means  to  circulate  it  in  their  seminaries, 
to  prescribe  it  to  their  clerks,  to  recommend  it  to  the  parish  priests, 
to  cause  it  to  become  the  food  of  the  people,  and  to  fix  that  in  all 
examinations  men  shall  be  questioned  upon  the  doctrines  of  poli- 
tical philosophy,  just  as  they  are  questioned  upon  those  of  Chris- 


THE  NEAPOLITAN  GOVERNMENT.  53 

tian  belief  and  conduct,  inasmuch  as  no  one  without  being  a  good 
citizen  and  a  good  subject  can  be  a  good  Christian  ! " 

There  is  daring,  if  not  grandeur,  in  this  conception.  A  broken 
oath ;  an  argument  spun  from  laborious  brains  to  show  that  the 
oath  ought  to  be  broken ;  a  resolution  to  pre-occupy  all  minds,  in 
the  time  of  their  tender  and  waxen  youth,  and  before  the  capacity 
of  thought,  with  this  argument :  no  more  cunning  plot  ever  was 
devised,  at  least  by  man,  against  the  freedom,  the  happiness,  the, 
virtue  of  mankind. 

Here  the  author  modestly  ends  with  the  declaration,  "  I  have 
planted,  Apollos  watered,  but  God  hath  given  the  increase." 
And  it  is  time  for  us  to  end  also.  We  have  thus  seen  Perjury, 
the  daughter  of  Fraud,  the  mother  of  Cruelty  and  Yiolence,  stalk 
abroad  in  a  Christian  kingdom  under  the  sanction  of  its  Grovern- 
mient ;  and  have  heard  her  modestly  make  for  herself  a  claim 
(which,  as  I  am  informed,  has  been  fully  allowed)  that  her  laws 
shall  be  expounded  in  every  school  throughout  the  country,  coin- 
cident in  extension,  and  second  only,  if  second,  in  dignity,  to  the 
Catechism  of  the  Christian  Faith. 

I  have  now  done  my  best  to  supply  the  reader  with  the  illus- 
tration and  collateral  evidence  which  seemed  necessary  in  order  to 
his  forming  a  correct  judgment  upon  the  charges,  so  harsh  and 
strange  in  sound,  which  I  have  been  compelled  to  make  against 
the  present  policy  of  the  Grovernment  of  Naples  in  regard  to  State 
prosecutions. 

For  contradictions,  again  I  say,  I  have  to  look  :  but  to  such 
contradictions  as  are  not  subject  to  be  verified,  cross-examined,  or 
exposed,  I  must  decline  to  attend.  Confutation,  I  am  now  con- 
vinced, except  in  small  details,  is  impossible,  with  respect  to  my 
statements  of  fact.  Would  to  God  that  that  unhappy  Government 
— and  any  other,  if  indeed  there  be  any  other,  like  it — may  be 
wise  in  time,  before  outraged  humanity  shall  turn  on  the  oppressor, 
and  the  cup  of  Divine  retribution  overflow.  If  we  are  to  quote 
Scripture,  here  is  my  text — "  Now  for  the  comfortless  troubles* 
sake  of  the  needy,  and  because  of  the  deep  sighing  of  the  poor ;  1 
will  up,  saith  the  Lord,  and  will  help  every  one  from  him  that 
swelleth  against  him,  and  will  set  him  at  rest."  (Ps.  xii.  5,  6). 

And  would  to  God  on  the  other  hand,  that,  if  there  shall  be 


54  STATE  PROSECUTIONS  OF 

shown  a  disposition  to  pnrge  out  abomination  and  temper  excess, 
and  steadily  and  honestly,  though  gradually,  to  bring  about  a 
better  state  of  things,  then,  such  a  disposition  may  be  met  with 
forbearance  and  goodwill,  with  the  chastening  of  too  eager  expec- 
tations, with  full  recollection  of  difficulties  and  allowance  for  them, 
and  with  an  earnest  readiness  to  forgive  and  to  forget. 

There  are  two  possible  inferences  from  what  I  have  written, 
against  which  I  must  endeavor  to  guard.  The  first  is  this  :  some 
will  say,  all  these  abuses  and  disgraces  are  owing  to  the  degradation 
of  the  people.  I  do  not  deny  that  there  is  some  share  of  what  we 
think  degradation  there ;  nor  can  it  be  wondered  at,  when  we  con- 
sider from  what  source  the  polluted  waters  of  fra^ud  and  falsehood 
flow ;  but  this  I  say,  that  the  Neapolitans  are  over  harshly  judged 
in  England.  Even  the  populace  of  the  capital  is  too  severely 
estimated  ;  the  prevailing  vices  lie  on  the  surface,  and  meet  the 
eye  of  every  one ;  but  we  scarcely  give  them  the  credit  they  deserve 
for  their  mildness,  their  simplicity,  their  trustfulness,  their  warm 
affection,  their  ready  anxiety  to  oblige,  their  freedom  from  the 
grosser  forms  of  crime.  What  will  be  said  in  England,  when  I 
mention,  upon  authority  which  ought  to  be  decisive,  that  during 
four  months  of  the  Constitution,  when  the  action  of  the  police,  too, 
was  much  paralysed,  there  was  not  a  single  case  of  any  of  the 
more  serious  crimes  in  Naples  among  four  hundred  thousand  people  ? 

"We  do  a  fresh  injustice  when  we  extend  to  the  various  classes 
of  the  community,  and  to  the  inhabitants  of  all  the  provinces,  the 
estimate  too  hastily  formed  even  of  the  populace  of  Naples.  Per- 
haps the  point  in  which  they  are  most  defective  is  that  of  practical 
energy  and  steady  perseverance  in  giving  effect  to  the  ideas,  with 
which  their  high  natural  intelligence  abundantly  supplies  them. 
But,  while  they  seem  to  me  most  amiable  for  their  gentleness  of 
tone,  and  for  their  freedom  from  suUenness  and  pride,  they  are,  I 
must  say,  admirable  in  their  powers  of  patient  endurance,  and  for 
the  elasticity  and  buoyancy,  with  which  in  them  the  spirit  lives 
under  a  weight  that  would  ciush  minds  of  more  masculine  and 
tougher  texture,  but  gifted  with  less  power  of  reactive  play. 

One  other  word.  I  write  at  a  moment  when  public  feeling  in 
this  country  is  highly  excited  on  the  subject  of  the  Roman  Catholic 
Church,  and  I  must  not  wilfully  leave  room  for  extreme  inferences 


THE  NEAPOLITAN  GOVERNMENT.  55 

to  the  prejudice  of  her  clergy  in  the  kingdom  of  Naples,  which  I 
know  or  think  to  be  unwarranted  by  the  facts.  That  clergy,  no 
doubt,  regular  and  secular,  is  a  body  of  mixed  character,  which  I 
am  not  about  to  attempt  describing ;  but  it  would,  in  my  opinion, 
be  unjust  to  hold  them,  as  a  body,  to  be  implicated  in  the  pro- 
ceedings of  the  Goverment.  A  portion  of  them,  beyond  all 
question,  are  so.  I  am  convinced,  from  what  has  reached  me,  that 
a  portion  of  the  priests  make  disclosures  from  the  confessional  for 
the  purposes  of  the  Government ;  and  I  have  known  of  cases  of 
arrest  immediately  following  interviews  for  confession,  in  such  a 
manner  that  it  is  impossible  not  to  connect  them  together.  But, 
on  the  other  hand,  there  are  many  of  the  clergy,  and  even  of  the 
monks,  who  are  among  the  objects  of  the  persecution  I  have  en- 
deavored to  describe.  The  most  distinguished  members  of  the 
celebrated  Benedictine  convent  of  Monte  Casino,  have  for  some 
time  past  been  driven  from  the  retreat,  to  which  they  had  anew 
given  the  character  of  combined  peace,  piety,  and  learning. 
Several  of  them  were  in  prison  when  I  was  at  Naples  ;  others  not 
in  actual  confinement,  but  trembling,  as  a  hare  trembles,  at  every 
whisper  of  the  wind.  One  was  in  prison  for  liberal  opinions ; 
another  for  being  the  brother  of  a  man  of  liberal  opinions.  There 
was  no  charge  against  these  men,  but  the  two  brothers  were  con- 
fined because  it  was  thought  that  through  the  first  of  them  might 
possibly  be  learned  something  against  some  other  su.<pected  per- 
son or  persons.  Among  the  arrests  in  December  last,  there  were, 
I  believe,  between  twenty  and  thirty  of  the  clerical  order.  It  may 
indeed  be,  and  perhaps  is,  true  that  the  greater  part  of  the 
whole  body  stand  by  and  look  on,  without  any  sympathy,  or  at 
least  any  effective  sympathy,  for  those  on  whom  the  edge  of  this 
sharp  affliction  falls ;  but  this  is  perhaps  not  less  true  of  the 
nobles,  whose  general  tone  I  believe  to  be  that  of  disapproval 
towards  the  proceedings  of  the  Government,  while  they  have  a 
kind  of  armistice  with  it,  and  it  is  the  class  beneath  them  that 
bears  the  brunt  of  the  struggle.  The  Church  at  Naples  is  pre- 
sided over  by  a  Cardinal  Archbishop  of  high  birth,  simple  man- 
ners, and  entire  devotion  to  the  duties  of  his  calling,  who,  I  am 
certain,  is  entirely  incapable  of  either  participating  in  or  conniving 
at  any  proceedings  unworthy  in  their  character.     The  Jesuits  are 


56  STATE  PROSECUTIONS,  ETC. 

the  body  who  perhaps  stand  nearest  to  the  Government ;  but  they 
were  ejected  from  their  college  during  the  time  of  the  Constitu- 
tion with  flagrant  illegality,  and  some  considerable  harshness  :  and 
even  their  doctrines  do  not  seem  to  satisfy  those  in  power,  for  a 
periodical  which  they  conduct,  under  the  name  of  La  Clvilta 
Cattolica,  and  which  they  used  to  print  on  their  premises,  has  now 
been  removed  to  Eome.  That  the  clergy  have  a  strong  faction 
with  the  Government  I  do  not  doubt :  so  have  the  lazzaroni :  but 
there  is  no  proof  of  the  complicity  of  the  body,  and  clear  proof  of 
the  opposition  of  a  part  of  it,  however  their  professional  tone  and 
learning  may,  to  a  certain  extent,  innocently  predispose  them  in 
favor  of  the  authorities,  especially  under  a  monarch  reputed  to 
be  most  regular  and  strict  in  the  ofiices  of  religion. 

I  remain,  my  dear  Lord  Aberdeen, 

With  much  regard,  sincerely  yours, 

W.  E.  GLADSTONE. 

6,  Carlton  Gardens,  July  14,  1851. 


I 


OP   ASSESSED  FOR   P^\^"^tHE  PENALTY 

:f^i-s  IoVk'on  the  oa-  °ue^;HE^ 

CAY    AND    TO    $10"  ^ 

OVERDUE.  


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